“There’s no prize at the end of life for having the most things checked off in the “To Do” list.”

This is the time of year when most of us grab pen and paper and make a list of all the things we are going to work on in our lives. From the pragmatic to the spiritual, every dimension of ourselves is fair game for improvement and change.

If one scrolls– and by that I mean surfing through any of the social media streams or idea sites – Facebook, Youtube, Pinterest, Instagram, etc. (a terrible habit which should go to the top of your list of things to quit this year, for Lent at the very least)– one is likely to run across endless suggestions of new things to try, how to get more done each week and how to organize your entire life with things from the dollar store.

One of the primary problems with this activity, however, is that it can quickly become the only thing one accomplishes. Instead of organizing your life, you can be perpetually gathering great ideas; meanwhile, the junk drawer never gets de-junked, and all those wonderful creative intentions never get fulfilled. I know because I have found that scrolling for clever ideas has actually reduced my overall productivity considerably.

But there is a very easy remedy: stop skimming across the surface, and plunge into something, Anything. For me, going for a walk or reading is one of the very best ways to actually stimulate my energy for Getting Things Done. It works like magic because it gives me time to ponder.

Earlier, for instance, as I was roaming over hill and dale whilst simultaneously reading a hastily grabbed issue of “First Things” and it happened: I began thinking deeply about something, and that led to thinking about many tangential things, until suddenly there were leaps and inspiration. All of that as well as exercising the body!

One of the things I began pondering was how very much there is to learn about even a seemingly narrow subject.

For instance, have you ever been amazed (you were probably quite young at the time) to find out that someone has spent a lifetime studying something that would seem to be a mere blip in history, such as the American Civil War? And then of course you were even further befuddled to find out that they had focused the majority of that study time on just one particular battlefield! Yes, and if you got him going, oh the stories he could tell!

And there’s the point. We need to not lose sight of how very rich and deep everything in our universe is. Our current habits of scrolling and skimming, saving links and hearting favorites have a tendency to lead us toward perpetually seeking novelty rather than truly enriching our knowledge.

Now you may think the Civil War buff is a bit too narrow in focus, but these days we are all more likely to ere on the side of too much breadth and not enough depth. Actually trying to keep up with too many goals, interests and friends can exhaust the spirit, but going deeper in one or two areas brings a richness to our understanding that can affect us in broad ways.

For instance, when I was a child, I learned, as I’m sure you did as well, that it is not appropriate to take advantage of the kindness and generosity of others. I learned to not ask for things or impose on hospitality. But as I grew older and have delved more deeply into my understanding of human design and relationship I have also learned that it is appropriate, even necessary sometimes to ask for real assistance from people. Further, by allowing or even asking people to do you a favor, you give them the opportunity to perform a work of mercy, which is actually good for them, because we were designed for self-donation rather than for self-sufficiency.

Now, to a child, these two guidelines of behavior could seem almost contradictory, but as an adult with much more experience and depth, I can see how these two ideas both point to the same truth about human need for relationship and mutual self-giving.

In other words, there are subtleties to be learned about life and they take a lifetime to learn, adopt and master. This is true of every art and activity of man, of every aspect of history, every science and skill.

In the magazine I just happened to randomly pick up there was an article that had the enticing words “Middle Ages” in the title. That is an epoch and mindset which fascinates me and which I’m always attracted to learning more about. As I read along I was delighted to find completely new, unexpected insights into the time period, but these new thoughts also stimulated my thinking on a diversity of thought threads, including, obviously, this one.

This is what going “further up and further in” does for the mind and imagination that skimming along through the world (scrolling) can never do. It builds new connections of comprehension and creativity in unexpected ways. And isn’t that the goal of our on-going learning or self-improvement efforts? Don’t we essentially want to become more fully what we have the potential to be? Don’t we desire the thrill of discovery and new insights as well as increased efficiency and effectiveness? Otherwise, why are we striving to be more efficient and effective? There’s no prize at the end of life for having the most things checked off in the “To Do” list. All of these efforts should be about becoming better people, more fully human, more fully alive to our vocations and avocations, more fully engaged in all our relationships.

Consider the reality of the universe and you can see why going deeper is the fruitful choice. It’s because everything we know and participate in is part of God, and there is no end to learning about him. He is infinite. Consider that – by definition you can never come to the end of getting to know God and therefore will never be bored, and since he is the ultimate source of all that is good, true and beautiful, you will never cease to be delighted by new discoveries. Further, since every human is made in his likeness and image, you can never get to the end of knowing people, either one nor many, either living or dead.

So as you make your resolutions for this new year, take a lesson from the expert in “The First Battle of Manassas”, or in “English Literature in the Sixteenth Century excluding drama”, and resolve to go deeper, further up and further in to your relationships and your skill sets, and have a fruitful and lively 2017.