A Mountain Above the Forest
Have you ever heard someone say, “You can’t see the forest through the trees!” Or how about, “It’s hard to remember the objective is to drain the swamp when you’re up to your elbows in alligators”? Maybe you’ve said them yourself.
My response to these statements is, “Try climbing up onto higher ground.”
Why do I say that? Consider this…
On the wind driven sailing ships of old the captain constantly monitored his position to maintain his course. The sailors who tended the sails and rigging didn’t worry about it; the ship’s cook didn’t worry about it. Unfortunately it’s not the same in life — we don’t have someone to maintain our life’s course and someone else to tend the sails. We are, at the same time, both captain and sailor on our ship and we have to do all the jobs. Unfortunately most people spend so much time tending sails, swabbing the deck and cooking the meals they neglect to monitor their position and maintain a course of their choosing. Most just drift through life and let the current take them where it will. When some finally arrive at a destination they exclaim, “This isn’t where I wanted to go!” Many others end up shipwrecked and loudly yell, “This isn’t fair!” Often they blame others for making them crash.
You are both captain and sailor on the ocean of life and you, and only you, determine where you go — whether by choosing and maintaining your course or by letting the currents of life take you where they will. Either way you will still have to do the work of the sailor. The difference is that some get where they intend and most end up somewhere they didn’t want to go.
One of the vital differences between successful people and failures is how much time (if any) they spend in planning and reflective thought. Success does not come easily nor is it a matter of luck or fate. You determine your luck and your fate. People who plan make their own luck by being in the places where opportunity arises. People who plan and reflect determine their own fate by controlling the paths they take and avoiding those that lead nowhere or to disaster.
A lot of people take time everyday to read a newspaper or watch the news. But I ask you how much of what you read and see there has any real affect on your life? I’d say less than 1%.
Many people take a lot of time every day for small talk and complaining. They have a tendency (dare I say “lust”?) to jabber about some recent horrible car accident or murder. Thoreau once said that he read about one murder in his life and figured that was all he needed to know. Reading about another would not improve his life but it might make his life more miserable. He was not being callous or uncaring, just simply smart. Why dwell on something that you have no power to affect especially when its effect on you can be so negatively powerful?
Failures spend 99% of their time doing and 1% planning (forget about reflective thought — they’re too busy). On the other hand it has been observed that people who succeed spend 20% of their time planning and reflecting and 80% of their time doing. Because of their planning and reflective thought, they easily accomplish far more in the 80% of time left than the failure that devotes 99% of his or her time exclusively to doing.
Failures complain about being buried all the time. They complain that they can’t see the forest through the trees. They moan about the alligators eating them. They talk about how they work so hard and earn so little.
Successful people plan and have time to play golf and read a book. They take time everyday to figuratively climb the mountain and view the entire forest. They never get eaten by alligators. They love their work and it is easy for them and they earn a lot.
Which would rather be — a failure or a success? It’s up to you.
Break the cycle of endless doing and steal the time you need to plan and reflect. Remember, you are both captain and sailor — as captain invest time in planning and reflection; as sailor invest time carrying out your captain’s plans. You will be richly rewarded.
Remember the man on top of the mountain always sees the forest because he is above the trees...and he never gets eaten by alligators.
- Journal notes
September 22, 2005
By Geoff Dunn
© 2005
