LIFE MAINTENANCE

Life Maintenance

I just recently ran across the term “life maintenance” and I was surprised that it took me so long as I’ve been practicing it all of my life.  Some examples of the basic things we need to do to maintain our lives involves a lot of mundane things like foraging for food, cleaning the house, mowing the lawn, paying bills, etc.  None of these activities seem to be worth trading our limited life hours for their accomplishment, but all of these activities are necessary to sustain our life! And they will overwhelm you unless you deal with them as they become a priority.

In the last few weeks, I experienced the failure of my washing machine and the failure of the hot water valve needed to supply water to the replacement machine.  I no sooner had that resolved when the mechanism that controls the flow of water in one of the bathroom toilet tanks started to scream like a banshee with each flush.   I woke early this morning to drive a couple friends to the airport for a red-eye flight, then returned home for some strong coffee and cereal, then drove to an early appointment at the dreaded DMV to renew my driver’s license, then stopped off at Lowe’s to purchase a boss Fluidmaster for the tank, then drove to Publix to forage for food after my return from a trip to Chicago and mowed the lawn before the summer heat index peaked. 

I remember driving my Ford as a teenager and noticing in my rearview mirror that there was no smoke exiting my exhaust pipe.  Then it occurred to me that I hadn’t checked the oil level lately.  When I stopped and checked, the dipstick showed it was empty!  I almost ruined the entire engine.

Those examples led me to understand the meaning of the service or useful life of things, e.g., how long an asset is likely to be profitable or useful or relevant.  A key component of extending the service life of a vehicle or organization is how well we analyze and maintain them.  An airliner might have a mission time of 11 hours, a predicted active Mean Time Between Failure of 10,000 hours without maintenance or 15,000 hours with maintenance, reliability of .99999 and a service life of 40 years.  When you board an airliner and discover coffee stains on your assigned seat, do you now have doubts about the maintenance of the jet engines?  Would you book that airline again?   

Human relations also need maintenance.  It’s been observed that “one honeymoon is not enough for a lifetime of marriage.”  And we can’t expect any organization like a business or a church to sail along smoothly forever without life maintenance as the world changes all around them. 

Are things falling apart right before your eyes?  When was the last time you checked the oil?