Preventative Maintenance

Sorry for the long lapse in blogs.  I've been thinking about writing for a long time, just did not get around to it until now.

First of all, you'll notice there are no numbers in the title.  My once a week blogging project spiraled into oblivion and will not make a return.  I am still going to make an effort to blog consistently because I do enjoy it and it is therapeutic in a way.  Ok, on to the meat and potatoes.

This year we have let go of two cars.  In turn we purchased two cars, but in doing research and trying to decide on which cars to get, I began to really understand the importance of preventative maintenance.  The interesting thing about preventative maintenance is that it applies to nearly all aspects of our lives.  Mechanical preventative maintenance can actually relieve stress, I don't know about you, but I have driven many miles in cars that I was not sure if they were going to make it and it is stressful!

The more I thought about mechanical preventative maintenance the more I realized how similar it is to all the other types of preventative maintenance, emotional, physical, spiritual, relational and so on.  I thought about how it is really hard to spend $200 on your car that seems to be running fine and how I used to think of all the other things I could spend the money on.  Physical preventative maintenance is the same, I could spend a couple hours working out, which is hard, or do nothing and wait until I have a physical problem to do something.

Recently I applied the preventative maintenance concept into my relationship with my wife.  After having a kid and being married for 6 years, being romantic takes a herculean  effort!  We decided on a night to have a date and I secretly began planning a few things.  It was difficult and took a real effort to plan the evening, order the flowers, clean the house and have enough energy to enjoy the date.  All that effort paid off though and I noticed a difference in our relationship.  The date was what we needed.

Now I am trying to be vigilant and stay on top of preventative maintenance, it is worth the effort for the peace of mind.

-dg