Don’t worry about the horse, just load the wagon

Five truths from one simple saying

As a kid, I was a perpetual line stepper. If my parents drew a line, I would step over it.

One way I would constantly line step with my dad was with the questions I would ask. No matter what we were doing, I always had questions about why. I can remember him getting so exasperated at my incessant need for an explanation.

It doesn't help that my dad isn’t much of a talker. He just wanted to know what his job was, do it, and move onto the next thing.

After a while, his answer became the same every time.

I would ask a question and he would say,

Don’t worry about the horse, just load the wagon. -Doug Sr.

That really irritated me .

As an adult, it has profound meaning. Here are just a few things I have learned from this seemingly simple saying.

Intent is more important than outcome

Putting too much focus on the outcome can cripple us from accomplishing today’s work. That’s not to say that we should disregard the outcome altogether. Instead, we should figure out the outcome that we want, then get to work.

If we really care about the outcome then we will put a disproportionate amount of focus on the work we have to do today.

Don’t let the things you can’t impact have an impact you

What people think, what they do, the decisions they make, are just a few examples of things that we have no control over. Yet, we wreck ourselves trying to control & manipulate things around us that we could never hope to control. Think about it like this,

Not even God controls what someone thinks or does. So why do we (being merely human) so often think that we can accomplish this feat?

Over analyzing is the cousin of procrastination

There have been many times when I have used over-thinking or over-analyzing as a way to distract myself from the work that needed to be done.

Needing things to be perfect is the best way to never get anything accomplished.

You can only do one thing at a time

Multitasking is a lie. Our brains can only focus on one thing at a time.

We haven’t gotten better at multitasking, we’ve only gotten better at being distracted.

Excuses are for losers

When I was in college, I can remember sitting in a church service and hearing a pastor say,

Excuses are the tools we use to build great monuments of nothing.

I’m pretty sure my dad used the whole don’t worry about the horse, just load the wagon thing to get me to shut up and do my work. Even so, it has had profound implications on the way I think about how to accomplish my purpose on this planet.

So next time you want to overthink or procrastinate remember,

Don’t worry about the horse, just load the wagon.

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For more about me, visit DougStewart919.com

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Grammatical errors & misspellings complements of dyslexia : — )