The Lop Sided Elephant
Yesterday, a friend sent me the boat cartoon as shown below. The two warriors on the front are talking to each other.
With rowers on one side of the boat being strong and well fed, and the other side with malnourished and weak rowers - one of them asks …
“What makes you think we’re going round in circles”
I think my friend was trying to make me realize that, even though I am going through a little c crisis right now, I still have to live a rounded life, whether that’s work or leisure – and I have been emphasizing leisure time in between hospital visits.
For the last few weeks I’ve been outputting videos but not completing the wordy bits on the website, something that I always did within a day or so of a video upload. The result is that I’ve started to concentrate on just one or two “things” and ignore other equally important “things” to the extent that to catch up now will require a mammoth effort.
And this reminded me of a children’s story that I wrote for my kids when they were knee high to a rabbit. The lop-sided elephant.
In a nutshell, poor elephant had a poorly foot. He couldn’t walk very fast and he couldn’t walk in a straight line, he was constantly walking in circles and going over the same ground that he had already walked across. Every day was 12 hours of walking but only 2 hours of moving forwards. By the time he got to the fruit trees, all the other elephants had eaten the best and juiciest fruit. And elephants have to sleep for 12 hours a day you know, that was what I told my children in the hope of getting them into bed by 7pm, (never worked).
And then, one day, someone gave the lop-sided elephant a crutch to lean on. (moral support and encouragement) and lop-sided elephant could walk in a straight line now, he could get to the fruit trees and find the best fruit, and he could even use his crutch to reach for the fruit that the other elephants could not reach.
The moral of the story was that we all have downer days and problems, but with a little help from friends and a good dose of our own determination, we can all find ourselves back in balance, being successful and prospering much sooner than we thought.
And that is it folks, When you are down, find yourself that crutch, make yourself stand up and get on with life. Keep that balance, adapt and overcome, and be successful.
Bux
Recent Comments
68
This is an awesome message. We all have down days as you say, doesn't matter how successful you are or in what stage of business you are within (just speaking to the business side of things), but the beautiful thing is there is a lot of available "crutches' that people can lean on if they ever need a hand, in particular here within WA.
There will be exciting moments in business, and defeating moments. Both come with the process of building a business and if you ask anyone that is a "high achiever" they will tell you that no matter how far along they are in business, there will always be both big successes, and big failures that we have to deal with. Comes with the territory.
Thanks Kyle. Yes, life isn't all about ups, sometimes you need to ride out the downs.
Thanks for your support, and for putting up with me.
Bux
Anticipate the downs even, because they will happen. One thing I can say from experience is the best education comes from the downs, and the more downs you are able to get through, the greater the success you can actually achieve. ;)
Good friends are sometimes hard to come by, but when you find one, hang on to them. My bestie has been my best friend since we were 13. She was the first to offer friendship to a new kid in a tiny rural school. We have been a crutch for each other for over 50 years now, and I wouldn't trade her for anything.
So, always keep that friend and share the crutch duties: a. A great story, Bux.
Nancy
Definitely true and sage advice there Nancy. The thing with a good friend, is that you can't get rid of them, no matter how hard you try. If people didn't know better, they would think that me and Sami were brothers. But I'm English and he's an Indian Sikh. We're always there for each other, and goodness me, could I tell some stories, I could write a blog a day until Xmas.
Take care Nancy.
Bux
Two takeaways are that determination and friends are essential to one's stability and your children are blessed to have such a delightful and wise father.
Thanks for the enjoyable read, Bux. Enjoy your day. Your mammoth will be there when you are ready.
Dave
Thank you Dave.
The mammoth has already taken hold. Big push today, I need to catch up.
Determination is everything and friends are essential.
Have a super week.
Bux
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That looks like a Gary Larson cartoon, he is seriously demented and thus I like him a lot.
Interesting what you say about putting things off when faced with a large medical issue. I was exactly the same. It’s like I will leave it to later, I don’t want the hassle now. Now I know I don’t have a serious problem I’m ok getting back to it. ..hmmm.
As for support strategy we all need one of them and just ranting made me feel better.
Your one legged elephant and my half assed neighbor should get together. lol.
Stevoi
I don’t want the hassle now
That's exactly how it was Stevoi. I suppose it was readjusting my mental approach to what was happening physically to my body. Plus all the hospital visits. For me it is a full day out of the action, 40 miles each way, waiting, then move to the next department and waiting some more, all for 20 minutes of the doctor's time. But an important 20 minutes. I'm determined to beat this.
Bux