Don't boil the ocean

  • (Matthew Wiebe, via Unsplash.com and used under Creative Commons zero)

This story appears in the See for Yourself feature series. View the full series.

by Nancy Linenkugel

Contributor

View Author Profile

The other day I was engaged in an exuberant conversation with a friend. Our topic was how we preserved our shoes. It might as well have been about how a bill becomes a law, as exciting as that probably sounds.

She took a relatively brief approach, saying things like she isn't hard on shoes but instead her shoes last forever.

I, on the other hand, launched into a seemingly endless explanation about how I'm not that hard on shoes either, and I don't use shoe trees but I do have my especially favorite pairs, so I don't wear them as frequently in order to keep them longer, and I learned from my dad that one of the most important things to have is a good shoe brush, which I do have, and I use it religiously before putting on the shoes for the day which, I think, preserves shoes by buffing out scuffs and dirt but, in reality, there are so many shoes that are made from man-made materials instead of leather so applying shoe polish doesn't do anything to make some shoes look better and all the while –

"Don't boil the ocean."

"Pardon?"

"Don't boil the ocean."

I stop talking, look at her, and say, "’Get to the point, Nancy,’ right?"

She nods affirmatively. "While it's interesting and I'm following you, just don't boil the ocean.”

Afterwards I talked with a consultant friend about what that means.

"Don't boil the ocean" means not to take on too large of a project scope nor get too carried away with something. For example, if you want to read the Bible, don't try to read the entire thing out loud word-for-word in 45 minutes. Or don't plan to paint every room in your house by yourself on a Saturday afternoon. Or don't schedule yourself to write 300 Christmas cards in one hour. Or don't try to write a 10-page research paper in the last half hour before it's due. Or don't –

Right. Don't boil the ocean.

[Sr. Nancy Linenkugel is a Sylvania Franciscan sister and chair of the department of Health Services Administration at Xavier University, Cincinnati, Ohio.]