More than you can chew

“… only pausing to remark that many find it unnecessary to fill the mouth to its utmost capacity.”

Misquotation of Pip in David Lean’s Great Expectations

Eyes > Stomach

I’ve more or less mastered the art of not taking more than I can eat.* Controlling portion size isn’t a problem, even if the number of portions I go back for occasionally is. When it comes to food, I have a decent handle on greed.

But it seems to me that we’re often greedy when it comes to what we hope to achieve, the projects we want to do, the books we want to read, the fun we want to have, and the people we want to have time for.

Even when we’ve considered our values (so that we’re choosing between relatively healthy lifestyle options), we have a tendency to bite off more than we can chew.

And I don’t have a solution – the “right” amount of everything remains elusive.

But when a colleague shared earlier about something heavy they’re dealing with – and have been carrying for a while – I was reminded that too busy to notice is too busy.

Scale is not its own reward.

*It took a while though – ask my mum about memorable early catastrophes