Edward Atkinson

I got a quote on repairing the windows on my house. The quote? North of $1,000 to scrape, treat for rust, and paint.

So I looked into doing it myself: it will cost me about $90 in materials and 5 hours of work. That equates to me earning $182 per hour by taking some initiative.

So now I’m working on repairing some windows!

I have always run calculations like that, to decide if a project is worth the time and effort.

But recently, that's all changed.

My oldest son is now 4 years old. He can climb ladders, scrape, and paint along with the best of them. (Well, maybe not the best...)

Sure, I can “earn” $182 an hour doing all the work myself. But that doesn’t really matter to me anymore.

Now, I get to do the project with my son. He shines with pride as he accomplishes a challenging task. And I get the soul-deep satisfaction of sharing an experience with him. Together, it will probably take us 15 hours instead of 5! And we’ll definitely drop some paint and break some things along the way.

And that’s wonderful.

While it’s important to measure and quantify, none of that matters in the grand equation.

Here’s to messy, memorable shared experiences!

Have a wonderful week!

-Edward

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this is excerpted from Growing ==>

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