There was a self-styled
good Samaritan who spent his hours and days at the foot of a
dangerous cliff, waiting for the cars to plunge through the guard
rail and crash below.
When they did,
he'd swing into action. He'd run over, pull the broken bodies
out, administer first aid, and call an ambulance. Then he'd pat
himself on the back and wait for the next accident to happen.
One day, though,
an observer noticed what he was doing and confronted him. "Why
in the heck don't you go up to the top of the cliff and stop
people from driving over in the first place?"
The Samaritan
looked at him like he'd just materialized out of thin air; he'd
simply never thought about it that way.
We all know people
who function in much the same way -- cleaning up messes afterwards,
rather than preventing them in the first place. Maybe that's
why so many doctors are getting into preventive medicine these
days, and counselors are working on relationships rather than
separations.
It sure works
for me.
In fact, I make
it a practice now to check the gas gauge before I drive to work,
rather than after I get stuck out on the road somewhere. A mundane
example, maybe, but it's better than being stopped by a mundane
problem.
Look at where
you're going today, and see if there's a way to smooth the road
now -- not later, when you're spinning your wheels.