the damage we do with short-term thinking

A few years ago, I was speaking at a conference in Milan, Italy. I was excited to eat incredible pizza, pasta, and gelato by the gallon. I was also looking forward to seeing Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece, The Last Supper.

The Last Supper is a fresco painted on the wall of the Santa Maria delle Grazie monastery. The painting measures fifteen feet tall and almost twenty-nine feet wide. Its estimated value is $450 million. 

Painted in 1495, The Last Supper has survived floods, invasions, the French Revolution, and the bombings of WWII. Sadly, the greatest damage inflicted on the masterpiece happened at the hands of the monks living at the monastery. And they did it intentionally, all for the sake of convenience.

The monks needed a new dining hall and chose the room with The Last Supper on the wall. In order to make mealtime more efficient, the monks cut a doorway between the dining hall and the kitchen so they’d have easier access. The new doorway removed a four-foot wide section of The Last Supper, damaging the fresco forever.

The Last Supper today

It seems unimaginable that someone would intentionally destroy something so valuable, but how often do we do the same?

We sacrifice our long-term health to our short-term desires. We miss the present moment by worrying about the future or dwelling on the past. We allow the demands of our jobs to keep us from spending time with our families. We let our most precious resource, time, slip away scrolling mindlessly through social media.

It’s easy to get distracted by the routines of life and get stuck in the rut of short-term thinking. Don’t lose sight of the big picture, of what’s most important in life. Make sure your short-term decisions don’t damage the masterpieces in your life.