johnmdemarco posted on January 31, 2012 13:24
I’m in the middle of a delightful project called rebuilding my mailbox…and starting to wonder why I’m bothering in the first place.
This is not just a simple fix. The mailboxes in my neighborhood—like most HOA-controlled subdivisions—all share the exact same style and color. I’ve been hunting around stores like Lowes and Home Depot, and have been unable to find a “mailbox-in-a-box”—one ready-made with the post just the right size and color with the black mailbox and its red flag attached.
Instead, I’ve purchased a big slab of treated wood shaped like a post, and have to prime it, sand it and then paint it before digging a hole in the ground, filling said hole with concrete and sticking the post in the ground. Oh, and then attaching the mailbox…and waiting to see what happens next.
This feels like futility. I hardly receive any mail worth keeping anymore. I seldom “snail mail” anything. I don’t want mail, except for Christmas cards (and I don’t even need to have those). I used to receive books from Amazon in the mail, but now I have a Kindle. I’m trying to reduce paper in m house and in my life. This whole mailbox habit is just more trouble than it’s worth.
But are building your own, brand new mailbox right now? Don’t take me literally here: is there a project that has consumed your energy and time, which will fail to ultimately support what’s most important to you? Will this project and endeavor move you closer to fulfillment and success, and enhance your personal and professional relationships—or does it feel like futility?
Hand-written letters are rare and precious. Time is even more so.
Take a fresh look at what you want the most, and ruthlessly prune away activities---as much as possible—that do not align with achieving what you want. The things that occupy your time are not any more sacred that a red flag on a black mailbox. They might have served a vital purpose for a season, but the season has changed.