Dear Old Dad. About 200 feet and up the hill from where I sit is his grave. He passed in 1990 and he has been my deceased father for longer than we was my alive father.
How ever the lessons he taught both by word or deed stay with me to this day.
One of the things he would say to me was “Don’t fret the small apples.” I did some research on the web, and after spending a very small amount of time, concluded that there was no credible sources of this saying. In other words, it appears to be original with Dad, though I’m pretty sure he first heard it on the old Iowa farm during his growing up years.
What was he saying? There are lots of apples to pick. Go for the big red juicy ones! Don’t spend a lot of time going after the small inconsequential fruits. They take a lot of time to process and yield little results.
To be sure, it is important to give heed to details, it is equally important to not spend an inordinate amount of time on details that at the end of the day really won’t matter.
Another way of putting it: don’t spend so much time arranging your pencils that you neglect to do your work.
Really the challenge is to distill your life down to the essentials and focus. Be ready to neglect the things that really when it’s all said and done, will not matter even though they cry for your attention.
The Pareto Principle (look it up) concluded that 80% of our results come from 20% of our efforts. In the writings of Joseph Juran he expands on this to conclude that if we discovered what those 20% efforts were and focused on them, our productivity would increase dramatically. He rightly points out that so much of our lives are filled with activity that has nothing to do with our passion! I.E. The small apples. Dear old dad was on to something
Don’t fret the small apples.
