Useful Tool

1
Useful Tool Overcoming Barriers
A story West of the Pecos River, throughout the
ranches of New Mexico and West Texas, cattle
graze on ranges that are so large that it is not
economical to hang gates everyplace a road
crosses a fence. So ranchers invented the cattle
guard a ditch dug across the road with metal
bars spaced every few inches to span the ditch at
road level. Cattle guards were a great
invention. Cars and trucks could drive right
over them, but cows couldnt walk through them.
The cattle were effectively fenced in. Of
course, there is one problem with cattle guards.
When a pick up truck drives over a cattle card at
50 or 60 miles and hour, the jolt to the driver,
passengers, cargo and suspension is terrible.
Once upon a time, some enterprising cowboys got
together to tackle this problem. Figuring that
cows were not terribly bright, the cowboys
decided to fill in the ditches, and paint stripes
across the road where the bars used to be to keep
the cows from straying. It worked. Cows
wandered up to the painted cattle guards and said
to themselves, Whoa! Thats a cattle guard I
cant go any further. Painted cattle guards
became the rage. The cows, being mostly an
unchallenging lot, accepted the painted cattle
guards, chose not to question their fate, and
spent their days milling around grazing in their
assigned pasture. But of course, no solution is
perfect. A few years passed and then, one day, a
couple of cowboys found a herd that had crossed a
painted cattle guard to graze in the rich, lush
grass close by the Pecos River. Here is what the
cowboys concluded One cow had gone up to the
painted cattle guard and for the first time
really examined it. She squinted her eyes and
looked at it hard. Thoughtfully, cautiously, she
put one hoof on the cattle guard and discovered
that it was just paint. Paint! She thought.
This isnt a real cattle guard! I have been
fenced in all these years by a pretend cattle
guard! This went against herd wisdom. It was
common knowledge that cattle guards were
impassable barriers, it was the way things were!
But now this cow thought hard and long about the
consequences of being fenced in by paint. And
although she was terrified, she put another hoof
on the paint and still nothing happened! She
took a deep breath and walked across. Then she
led the entire herd across that painted cattle
guard. That is what we call a smart cow. What
made that smart cow successful wasnt necessarily
extraordinary courage. She was successful
because she took the time to examine the painted
stripes on the road and to think about them. She
considered real evidence rather than relying on
herd wisdom. Only then did she discover that the
cattle guard which had kept her fenced in for
all those years was just made up! The moral
of this admittedly tall tale is this At first
glance, most adventures seem dangerous and full
of barriers like cattle guards that herd wisdom
teaches us not to cross. But if we stop to
examine what is fencing us in and then think
about it, we often discover that the barriers are
simply paint. If we can clearly understand the
difference between what is real and what is
paint, we can begin adventures we had never
before imagined. From Play to Win! Choosing
Growth over Fear in Work and Life. Larry Wilson,
Hersch Wilson
Useful Tool Excuses and Fears Headspace
Excuses and Fears List all the reasons you
believe to be at the root of your imbalance.
Many of these may be excuses! Examine what fear
these excuses are linked to. Once we understand
our fear we can do something about it. Now
examine the fear to see where it came from, how
valid it is now, and how to tackle it. Often, it
is at this point that we realize we can overcome
it, for it is a fear that started small and has
become magnified over the years by never being
given a voice. The silent fear is greater in
every way than a voiced fear as it cannot be
faced with the maturity of an adult mind.
Headspace The law of disproportionate headspace
works like this If a task take up 15 minutes
to do and is put off, the headspace it takes up
is doubly proportionate to the amount of time the
task will take. Furthermore, that headspace will
grow over time. I developed this theory a decade
ago, from hearing friends complain about
housework. I would respond to them like this
it is not the cleaning itself that takes up all
your time, it is the anxiety and guilt and
headspace that is taken up worrying about when
you are going to fit it in, and he fact that
youre not able to relax without a niggle that
takes up time. Positive, clear, open headspace
is more important to protect than the action of
the doing or the not doing because it causes
more problems. The fact is that clearing
headspace is the simplest of things to address
and makes the world of difference to a life or
balance. It is a case of just doing the task and
getting on with it. Dont allow negative
headspace to grow. It is destructive, draining
and disproportionately time consuming. Clear
your headspace by doing the dreaded task.
Productivity, freedom and balance automatically
follow. The task can never be as bad in the
doing of it as what will follow if we dont do
it. (Source The Balancing Act. Fiona
Parashar)