Meaningful Returns

If I had to put a number on it, I would say roughly 93% of my yard consists of weeds. On one hand, this doesn’t bother me at all, because each and every one of those weeds is green all summer long, and because it costs zero dollars to keep a green, weed-infested yard. But on the other hand, a healthy helping of North Carolina sun and rain causes these weeds to grow at an alarming rate, such that during the summer it feels like the yard is in a constant state of “needing to be mowed.”

Have you ever tried mowing a yard more than a week or so past its due date (the term for this in some circles is, “making hay”)? If not, I will explain to you what it’s like: torturous. You are only to allowed to walk behind the mower at speeds approaching 50% of your normal pace, and even then the mower has tremendous difficulty cutting the clogged mass of grass (weeds). So then you find that the cut is patchy at best, and if you don’t want your yard to look like an actual hay field, you often need to bag the clippings, and then cut it a second time.

What I mean is, bad habits are hard to overcome. But if you wait too long, they become almost impossible to break. You’re used to living a certain type of lifestyle, you’re used to delaying saving, you’re comfortable with putting off important things, and the longer you accept those realities, the harder it becomes emotionally and mentally to correct them. But perhaps as importantly–and this bit is often overlooked–the consequences of those bad habits are harder to repair the longer they persist.

Pro tip: mow the yard regularly, no matter what.