Take the Long Way Home

A few days ago I had the urge for some home style soup.  No canned soup but something that might resemble old fashioned make you feel warm on the inside soup.  I opted for one of the cylindrical packages of 15 Bean soup.  I scanned the ingredients to make sure I had tomatoes, onion, garlic, chili powder, and of course, something like sausage.  I got home and was very excited to get going, only to discover that the beans had to be soaked for 8 Hours before the cooking could begin.

There was a short version which had me soaking and cooking the beans for 3 hours, but you couldn't be sure that the beans were fully soaked and you'd get the flavor you set out to get.  So I went for the 8 hour version.  After the 8 hours, I then had to combine all the goodies and simmer for 2 hours.  It all turned out to be a wonderful soup.  The way it was meant to be.

I've come to the conclusion that living in a large city requires finding workarounds.  If you're going from the Valley to the City, you take Wood Cliff to Roscomare and go through Bellaire past the school.  If it's after 3pm, you don't take the Freeway.  The list goes on and on.  The cost of living somewhere that is crowded is finding the secrets that help us endure. And save time.

We do the same thing in our business practices.  We text.  We email. We do what will be the fastest. Check your email exchanges.  It looks more like Jai Alai and VolleyBall than it does a conversation.  The phone still works quite well but we would rather be brief and direct.

It strikes me that we are doing things for expediency rather than effect or impact or quality.

Take a look at your shortcuts this next week and decide which are really time savers.  Once a week, take the longer route.  Make the Steel Cut Oats that take 28 minutes instead of Instant Quaker that just takes boiling water. Make the phone call instead of 4 texts and an email.

Take the long way home and see if it adds anything to your relationships, to the quality of your product,  or perhaps to the Quality of your life, other than just time.

My choice would still be Highway 9 rather than 17.  It gives me a greater chance think.