Recently I was housesitting for a neighbor who owns four dogs. In addition to making sure everything in their house didn’t get stolen, I had one very important job…I had to pick up dog poop.
At first, I didn’t think that part would be so bad. I vastly underestimated how much four dogs could poop. It was a lot. If you have never owner four dogs at once before, here’s a way for you to better understand what I was working with. Just picture how much poop you think one dog is capable of. Then multiply it by four.
Starting to get the picture?
As I grabbed the pooper-scooper, two questions crossed my mind. First, why would anyone own four dogs? Second, I wonder if I can come up with a ‘5 Things We Can Learn From Everyday Objects Post’ for this?
I still don’t know the answer to the first question, but here’s what I came up with for question number two.
Five Things We Can Learn From Picking Up Dog Poop
1. Don’t Let It Pile Up
After my first day of house sitting, I noticed the dogs have done their business in a few spots in the back yard already. I could have picked it up then, but I didn’t have to take the trash out for a few more days. Fast forward a few days and what started out as just a few spots had become a poop blanket, covering nearly the entire back yard. I now had a lot more work to do and I was up against the clock. As I smelled awful I wished I had a time machine to go back to that first day and tell myself to pick things up little by little.
Whether it is our to-do list or our dog poop, we are all prone to letting things pile up. We are great at giving ourselves reasons why a job can wait until tomorrow. Very rarely does that work. Most times we end up swamped and smelling terrible.
2. Watch Where You Step
In football, a coach tells his players to keep their heads on a swivel. This means that if you aren’t looking where you are going, a 300 pound lineman is going to knock your head off of your absentminded body. I didn’t have to worry about any 300 pound lineman, but my head was never swiveling as much as it was when I was in the poop minefield.
By keeping our head on a swivel, we can do more than just avoid bad things. We can actually create good breaks. We can increase our luck by simply being aware of more opportunities. Don’t believe me…read this.
3. Who Knows Where You Will Find Something
The majority of the damage in the poop minefield was done near the front door. But I also found some results in the far corners of the yard. I am not sure if the dogs simply ran out of prime real estate or if they were messing with me.
As we start after a new goal we all wish the results will be near the front door. That would sure make things easier. But it never quite works like that. We can miss something big if we never venture to the far corners of the yard.
4. Life Isn’t All Fun & Games
According to ASPCA, approximately 37-47% of all households in the United States have a dog. And according to a great book, approximately 100% of those dogs poop. There is nothing fun about picking up dog poop, but millions of people love their dogs enough to do it.
Do you love your business enough to pick up the proverbial dog poop? I sure hope so, because there is about 100% chance you are going to have to do it at one time or another.
5. Results Come In All Shapes & Sizes.
Without getting too graphic, you can imagine what I mean by this. I scooped nearly 50 loads into the trash. Some scoops were big. Some scoops were small. If I squinted, one scoop even looked like Elvis.
Anytime we start something new, we want results. We have a vision of what those results will look like. And more often than not, we get discouraged when our real results don’t match our vision. We are more likely to recognize wins as soon as we start realizing that good results can come in all shapes and sizes. Sometimes they may even look like Elvis.
Photo credit: Wikipedia
