Working in the yard brings many joy. Planting flowers and a vegetable garden in the spring. Pulling weeds during the summer as well as watering the grass. Much different work is involved if your were to plant a tree. Or need to expose the foundation of your house in order to seal a crack that leaks water into your basement. Or remove a stump after a tree has been cut.
In these situations, you need to use a shovel. Over and over, moving small amounts of dirt out of the way to complete your task. If you have ever done this, it’s hard work. You have to keep digging for a long time before you can stop. It’s hard to hide when you have to do this type of work. No app will help you finish.
Opportunities require the same type of effort as moving dirt with a shovel. We use a shovel because we easily understand we need it to reach our outcome. It’s hard to move dirt without it.
Shovels never appear in conversations about opportunity. Why? Opportunities blindly focus our attention only on the outcome. The beauty of their story is the outcome is always crystal clear & certain.. The payoffs of every opportunity discussed are always 100x what most turn out to be. They seduce us out of reality into the ephemeral world of ideas. Ones that disappear quickly when conversation ends.
It is only the shovel and its size that bring life to an opportunity. For nothing is bestowed upon us magically. Shovels are the only tool that can slowly transform opportunities into possibility. Leading them into practice.
Popular thinking talks often about the need for grit, persistence and effort. Shovels are a great symbol for all of these. As they hang in our garage, we must be reminded of their value as well as what they represent. Only realized when we remember to use one.