In the movie 50 First Dates, Drew Barrymore’s character wakes each day thinking that it is October 13 because she suffers from an ailment called anterograde amnesia. When she meets Adam Sandler, she builds a first-time relationship repetitively. Although there is some question about the nature of this memory ailment, there are some anecdotes that show real parallels in actual people. But that’s not the point here. Barrymore’s character starts each day as October 13 as though all intervening previous days never existed. Her daily life is based on zero, that is, nothing from the previous day spills into the next.
The theory of zero-based budgeting that was introduced to the U.S. economy in the 1970s required agencies to justify expenditures in a succeeding budget. Each budget year was supposed to be a totally new event in this economic system. Unfortunately for taxpayers, those spending others’ money define “justification.” So, big bureaucracies easily fall back into the cycle of carryovers because of running programs, and projects go into budgets beyond initial allocations.
Like agencies, we also run extended projects in our lives: Thus both love and hate.
50 First Dates makes the prospect of having to start over each day seem to be, in the end, a romantic idea. Yet, in our personal experiences we know that infatuation is a short-term state, whereas love is more long-term, though it certainly can develop from those first hormonal stirrings. In our popular way of thinking as expressed not only in fiction, but also in horror stories of stalking, a persistent infatuation seems counter to a healthful relationship, often because it is one-sided: Someone keeps spending like some government agency drunk on tax dollars. However, we might acknowledge that though infatuation is not the path to sustainability in love, it is a great initial motivator.
We almost universally acknowledge and justify running expenditures in love, carryovers from one day to the next that are based on the previous emotional expenditures. A zero budget, though a romantic notion in a movie, eliminates all the connections made and keeps memory from participating in the relationship.
But with hate, the budget is a mix. Hate is a carryover budgetary item reborn with a DNA that mirrors infatuation. And, as long as the budget supports the overrides, it maintains its power. To eliminate hate we need a zero-based life budget. Take memory out of the mix. Budget each day anew.
Of course, the theory of a zero-based budget is easy to promulgate, but hard to practice. By what theory are you running the economy of your life?
The theory of zero-based budgeting that was introduced to the U.S. economy in the 1970s required agencies to justify expenditures in a succeeding budget. Each budget year was supposed to be a totally new event in this economic system. Unfortunately for taxpayers, those spending others’ money define “justification.” So, big bureaucracies easily fall back into the cycle of carryovers because of running programs, and projects go into budgets beyond initial allocations.
Like agencies, we also run extended projects in our lives: Thus both love and hate.
50 First Dates makes the prospect of having to start over each day seem to be, in the end, a romantic idea. Yet, in our personal experiences we know that infatuation is a short-term state, whereas love is more long-term, though it certainly can develop from those first hormonal stirrings. In our popular way of thinking as expressed not only in fiction, but also in horror stories of stalking, a persistent infatuation seems counter to a healthful relationship, often because it is one-sided: Someone keeps spending like some government agency drunk on tax dollars. However, we might acknowledge that though infatuation is not the path to sustainability in love, it is a great initial motivator.
We almost universally acknowledge and justify running expenditures in love, carryovers from one day to the next that are based on the previous emotional expenditures. A zero budget, though a romantic notion in a movie, eliminates all the connections made and keeps memory from participating in the relationship.
But with hate, the budget is a mix. Hate is a carryover budgetary item reborn with a DNA that mirrors infatuation. And, as long as the budget supports the overrides, it maintains its power. To eliminate hate we need a zero-based life budget. Take memory out of the mix. Budget each day anew.
Of course, the theory of a zero-based budget is easy to promulgate, but hard to practice. By what theory are you running the economy of your life?
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