Chocolate elephants

There are, in IT, a number of recurring issues. Across projects, the same problems occur again and again, regardless of technology and platform. I actually wrote a series of blog posts, prosaically entitled 'Why IT Projects Fail', which I was going to turn into a niche best seller before I remembered that I have been working on my novel for nearly twenty years (including about four hours of actual writing) and wisely accepted that it wasn't going to happen. 

Anyway, as a consequence of this, as I moved from project to project in my freelancing years, I accumulated a wealth of analogies and metaphors for these common mishaps (before I decided to go off and start my own business, which is an entirely difference catalogue of challenges and catastrophes). 

I had one friend, Alan, whose philosophy regarding project management boiled down to this piece of wisdom: "How do you eat a chocolate elephant? One bite at a time." There's more to that than might initially be apparent, not least the need to understand all the steps involved in a project and the necessity of doing each one of them. (It's also a great message for procrastinators.)

Which brings me, in a roundabout way, to my current determination to walk at least ten thousand steps a day. There are no shortcuts; each step needs to be taken. And yet getting in five miles of walking daily - for that is what it takes - can seem a very daunting task. So I am taking Alan's advice and breaking it down into manageable chunks: a mile here (walk to Asda for lunch), half a mile there (pop to the Post Office).

Today, after dropping Dan at work, I walked from the music shop into Morecambe and found a little coffee shop overlooking the Bay where I could enjoy a coffee and do my German. A mile each way, that's forty percent of my steps done!

I'm not going to lie to you, the news is getting me down at the moment. The Tory leadership hustings, Brexit, and the worst Labour leader since Michael Foot (possibly worse). All the joy has been sucked out of reading the paper. But as I sat there, the runners for the Parkrun started going past in their splendid variety and my heart and soul were lifted. I had a second coffee, finished my German, and walked back to the car.

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-11.9 kgs
Reading: 'Pauline Boty: Pop Artist And Woman' by Sue Tate