Here’s a life rule that I discovered with the help of my sister, Kirsten. While on vacation in Spain, trying to find the next little church in Donostia, we got lost. We immediately turned around to retrace our steps and gain our bearings. After driving back the way we had come about 10 minutes, we had determined that we had it right the first time (argh).

So we flipped and went back the way we were traveling in the first place. Now granted, we were driving in a beautiful foreign country and weren’t tied to a schedule so the delay wasn’t too bad, but it’s the principle behind the mistake that irked us. We passed the place we turned around and within 5 miles we found our destination!

As we walked up to the church we were visiting, we discussed the matter, and came up with the 5-Mile Rule, which was quickly formalized thus:

“When traveling in a foreign country, and you seem to have lost your way, continue on the pre-described route for another 5 miles, then turn back and ask for directions”

This rule helped us several times on that trip. And, no, I can’t remember the Church we were visiting. Maybe Kirsten can remember for me. (Oh, and Kirst, sorry about not mentioning the House, there may be complications…)

So now I’ve got the 5-Mile Rule. As I’ve said it came in handy in Spain, and other places I’ve traveled to. But I’ve adjusted this rule to several other aspects of life. Now I call it the Rule of 5 - Here’s how it goes:

The Rule of 5 - When working on a simple task, whether it’s driving to an unknown location, researching a topic, getting a job/task completed, apply the appropriate unit in a quantity of 5 (miles, minutes, steps, etc.).

So why am I blogging about this rule on a tech-ish blog,here’s a case in point. Check out the blog entry I wrote earlier today. I decided to add a tool to my blogging “Quiver of Knowledge” (quote from Dr. Germaine Murray of Maryville University). I used the Rule of 5 to avoid wasting time trying to implement this tool. I researched the topic for about 5 minutes and made the decision to stop and adjust my thinking. There are too many things that need to be done in the day to waste more than 5 minutes on.

So, I mentioned my sister, Kirsten. I would be remiss if I didn’t throw out her website. For all the lady’s out there looking for a little bling, she makes beautiful jewelry out of Swarovski Crystals. Check out her site Objets d’Envy

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 30th, 2007 at 7:43 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.