The Goose & the Golden Egg
And the importance of building a community...
Have you read or heard of the fable “The Goose & the Golden Egg?”
There was once a Countryman who possessed the most wonderful Goose you can imagine, for every day when he visited the nest, the Goose had laid a beautiful, glittering, golden egg.
The Countryman took the eggs to market and soon began to get rich. But it was not long before he grew impatient with the Goose because she gave him only a single golden egg a day. He was not getting rich fast enough.
Then one day, after he had finished counting his money, the idea came to him that he could get all the golden eggs at once by killing the Goose and cutting it open. But when the deed was done, not a single golden egg did he find, and his precious Goose was dead.
Those who have plenty want more and so lose all they have.
Do any of the following sound familiar?
You get impatient with how long it is taking you to succeed or finish something,
You put everyone else’s needs ahead of your own,
You work harder on your job than you do on yourself,
You (have) let other people’s opinions control your life or even the decisions you make over your own life,
You get overwhelmed with the amount of work you must do,
You have trouble saying “no,” and feel obligated to do things you do not want to do,
I could honestly keep going, the list is endless.
And if any of the fore mentioned sound familiar or you could add to the list, sadly you are focusing on the golden eggs.
This weekend something was off with me…
I wasn’t myself.
I couldn’t quite put my finger on it either.
It wasn’t until I was honest with a close friend (another massage therapist) and shared some of what was going on…
Some of my text messages mentioned being overwhelmed.
In response I received a screenshot of a page from a book I had purchased my friend for her birthday, Stephen R. Covey’s book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
Highlighted was this insert…
“It’s a principle you can see validated in your own life when you burn the candle at both ends to get more golden eggs and wind up sick or exhausted, unable to produce any at all; or when you get a good night sleep and wake up ready to produce throughout the day.” — Stephen R. Covey.
Wow!
This spoke volumes to me…
Had I been burning the candle at both ends?
And if so… for how long?
Worried only about producing golden eggs, rather than focusing on taking care of the Goose? The Goose in this scenario being me and the golden eggs being the result of all my hard work.
I would highly encourage you to read this book if you haven’t already… I have read this book twice and I am considering reading it a third time (it is that insightful).
How is it that a book I gifted a friend more than a year ago would come back to help me?
I chose to make a friend that year, we met up for coffee at our local half-price books store and I bought her this book because of how much of an impact the book had made on my life that year. I poured into her life that day, and a year later she would pour back into mine from the very same book.
If I could have it my way… the introvert in me would rather spend much of my time stuck at home, alone, working, journaling, etc.
But you can see how easily this isn’t healthy.
Although I would prefer to spend much of my time alone, I realize the importance of connection and bonding.
This weekend, I had more fun in a few hours spent playing Super Mario World with my little brother than I did all weekend working on anything else work related.
Why is that?
I was connecting with my little brother. We laughed. We got angry at the ridiculously hard obstacles in the course. We celebrated when we defeated the Ludwig’s Castle and the ones before.
I realize the importance of connecting with the ones I love…
As well as the importance of building a community.
We can’t do this alone.
We need strong connections.
We need others to pour into our lives.
We need others to hold us accountable.
We need others to remind us of the importance of living.
We need to focus on the Goose more than we do the golden eggs.
Don’t kill the Goose.
Take care of the Goose.
You only get one Goose.
Very respectfully,
Well-Known Reyes