“At the end of the day” is, at the end of the day, one of those phrases like “it is what it is” that we need to eradicate from our daily lives.
Pretentious people say at the end of the day as do people who want to sound impressive and definitive. In business, which is so focused on outcomes and the bottom line, people say at the end of the day often. At the end of the day is similar to the answer to a math problem. It's like saying “after adding 10 + 10 you get a result, at the end of the computation, of 20.”
Why does “the start of the day” get less airtime? How come people don't talk about it as much? It's as if everything of importance happens at the end of the day.
Reconsider.
At the end of the day we have to decide something. Decisions go awry and build stress.At the start of the day people pour syrup on their pancakes, take warm showers and rub body wash on themselves, and drink sweet-flavored coffee. At the start of the day the sun rises, which is an embodiment of hope that revives the human spirit. At the start of the day people write up their To-Do lists and get energized to accomplish things which, at the end of the day, they don't completely finish. Often they don't even complete their first item on the list because they get interrupted all day long or lack discipline. At the end of the day, this is life.
At the start of the day we get to watch highlights of what insults Republican candidates unloaded at each other during the previous night's debate and wonder what, at the end of the day, it all means. At the end of the day the debates mean it's time to move on with our lives which, at the start of the day, revives hope. At the end of the day personal insults get us nowhere.
At the start of the day we eat bacon. At the start of the day our hair is combed and clean unless, at the end of the day, we don't care how we look. At the start of the day we drive around the Bernardsville suburbs noticing how nice the scenery is and fantasizing about the trees turning green again. But at the end of the day, we know that's going to take longer than we hope. It always does.
At the end of the day, the start of the day is better than the end of the day. At the end of the day we have to decide something. Decisions go awry and build stress. They cause us to eat too many sweets. Often there are nuances to these decisions based on incomplete information, interpersonal politics, and money pressures. Often our decisions are questioned and turn out to be wrong and ill-timed.
At the end of the day we have to think about what we need to do at the start of the next day. At the end of the day we post results that we have to live with until the start of the next day and sometimes long after that. These decisions carry weight, often day after day.
At the end of the day our minds tire. We can't concentrate for as long as we could at the start of the day. At the end of the day it is dark outside so more difficult to see where we are going or who is walking down our streets. At the end of the day there is less to do other than watch presidential debates that are, at the end of the day, a bad way to end the day.
At the end of the day, this is how it all comes together.
And at the start of the day we do it all over again.
Every day.