REFRAMING YOUR LIFE

Nothing Stays Done

There is a quiet expectation that things will eventually settle.

That if you work hard enough, plan carefully enough, or just push through this phase, life will reach a stable state.

It doesn’t.

Things get done.
And then they come undone.
Or they need doing again.

This is not a failure of effort.

It is how life works.

Laundry gets washed.
Dishes get cleaned.
Emails get answered.

And then:

• The laundry returns
   
• The sink fills again
   
• More messages arrive
   

You don’t reach a point where these tasks disappear.

You reach a point where you stop being surprised by their return.

Completion is real, but it does not last.

Most systems promise an endpoint.

Get organized.
Get ahead.
Catch up.

When that endpoint never arrives, it feels personal.

As if you missed something.

As if everyone else figured out how to stay on top of things.

They didn’t.

They are just repeating the same cycle with better lighting.

There is an unspoken belief that maintenance is inferior.

That real progress looks like movement, growth, accumulation.
That repeating yourself means you’re stuck.

But most of adult life is maintenance.

Keeping things from getting worse.
Restoring them to “good enough.”
Returning again and again to the same baseline.

This is not stagnation.

It is stability.

When you believe things should stay done, repetition feels like defeat.

You push harder, hoping to finish for good.

You resent the work that keeps coming back.

You treat maintenance as evidence of inadequacy.

That belief quietly drains you.

Not because the work is endless—but because you expect it not to be.

If nothing stays done, then “being finished” is the wrong standard.

A more humane measure is:

• Is this tolerable?
   
• Is this maintained well enough?
   
• Does this require more than I can reasonably give?
   

You are allowed to stop at “good enough.”

You are allowed to leave some things undone, knowing they will return anyway.

When you accept that nothing stays done:

• Repetition stops feeling like failure
   
• Falling behind loses its moral weight
   
• Rest becomes part of the cycle, not a reward for escaping it
   

You stop trying to win against entropy.

You start deciding what is worth maintaining.

Nothing staying done is not a problem to solve.

It is a condition to work within.

Once you accept that, you can spend your energy where it matters—
instead of trying to reach a finish line that doesn’t exist.