The frentic pace of life tends to overtake you and as responsibilities pile up the first thing that you cut out of the calendar is renewal or as Stephen Covey says “Sharpen the Saw”.
Has that ever happened to you?
Though I train on this success principle, after my twin’s I started noticing that I was no longer getting time to sharpen the saw. I felt that I was burning my candle on both ends. This started taking a toll on me physically.
And that’s when I decided that this has to change.
I took a month’s vacation and joined my husband on a ship. (He is a Captain in the merchant navy). This was the first time my twin daughters were on a ship. And were they delighted. They proclaimed that the rolling and pitching was the ship dancing.
I do not suggest that you take a month off. But take some time off to refill yourself. It will increase your productivity and fulfilment at work.
I will share a few of my musings from when I was on the high sea’s….This will enable you to see the effect of renewal.
- “Slow down and enjoy the beauty that life has to present to you while you still can, who knows what’s there in the afterlife.”
- “Ships of all sizes moving in all directions, cold wind and warm sunshine with dark blue freezing water connecting all of them. What beauty in this scene. A low aircraft flying low across the sky, the only interruption to this evening buzzing of the ships engine. So many miss this is hard to believe. I almost did.
- Men working in unison to haul a rope ladder as the ship moves in an arc to change direction. The white froth the ships side creates looks as mundane as the foam left after washing cloths and yet it is beautiful in its own way.The shadows of the clouds dancing on the sea make the white sea horses come alive as sets of different armies lunging at each other in a battle depicting good over evil. Mountains of all sizes and shapes surrounding this scene add to the character. While the captains brow shows the difficulty of the maneuver the ship is attempting. Though its just to get the pilot onboard, the readiness on the bridge is exciting. The checks and the repetitions of instructions add to the entire excitement. The ladder is dropped, a seaman ready to help the pilot onboard. The captain gives instructions, over sees the maneuver and leaves. The power play on the bridge depicts the age old animal kingdom rules; the lion is done now the pack takes over to finish the job.
- The beauty of the wake a ship leaves behind in a calm sea that looks like a satin sheet rippling seductively in wind is not something that can be expressed in words but needs to be captured in a painting.
- Fingers numb with cold can hardly hold the pen to write but the mind races to captures this moment, to store this image in my memories is too fragile so I want to pen it down somewhere as if the very act of writing makes it safe to even savor. The sun shining brightly from between a thick sheet of white clouds announces its power and giving its warmth as it lights up a section of the sea, light reflecting of the calm sea is like a vision of heaven itself.
Now, I realize that we can’t invest this kind of time in ourselves regularly, but we need to invest some time in our renewal daily / weekly / monthly.
We do not expect a car to run without petrol in it’s tank but so many of us are attempting to do so ourselves.
Let’s vow to ENHANCE PRODUCTIVITY by sharpening the saw.
Contributed by: Anila Rattan Chief-Strategy, Larks Learning
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