This week I am refreshing a story that I heard many years ago. I love the story because it talks about the meaning of how we view the things we do. Whether it is in our work, our hobbies or our relationships.
For a long time now, I have advocated for living a deliberately designed life. That’s why I love business so much. It is a vehicle for creating a lifestyle that you desire. Working for yourself is difficult, but with hard work comes rewards, especially if you aim to provide quality products and services.
This story about hauling rocks is a metaphorical story and how your perception can help or hinder your outcomes and your motivations. How you perceive a task can be inspiring or deflating, it is all in your attitude.
The story goes like this – a man walks by a construction site and sees three workers and each of them are pushing a wheelbarrow filled with rocks.
Out of curiosity the man asks one of the workers what they are doing. “What does it look like?” he says with a sneer. “I’m just hauling rocks.”
Unsatisfied with that answer, the man asks the second worker with a wheelbarrow the same question. Without even bothering to look up, this man says, “we’re putting up walls.”
Frustrated, the man tries one last time. “I say there,” he asks the third worker, “can you please tell me what you men are doing here?” Unlike the other two, this man stops, puts down his wheelbarrow, wipes the sweat from his forehead and says with a big smile, “we are building a castle and it’s going to be magnificent.”
Your perception makes all the difference!
Here are three different men; all doing the same work, but one says he is hauling rocks, one says he is putting up walls, and one says he is building a castle. This story is about the attitude and the commitment that each of us bring to our lives.
Fundamentally this story is about personal truth and commitment to building a business that is going to be magnificent. The definition of magnificent will be entirely up to you!
Sharon
