Achieve What You Want Through Deliberate Action

We love to get things done and accomplish tasks. In work we are often measured by what we've done over the year. The same for school. Heck, even in life we often think about what we've done as a means of measuring ourselves rather than who we are. How we can measure ourselves is the subject of a different post. ;-) But since we do measure ourselves by achievements, we ought to make sure that we go about it the right way. And, of course, there are folktales to help us along, like this tiny gem from the Philippines.

One day a man who had been to gather his coconuts loaded his horse heavily with the fruit. On the way home he met a boy whom he asked how long it would take to reach the house.

"If you go slowly," said the boy, looking at the load on the horse, "you will arrive very soon; but if you go fast, it will take you all day."

The man could not believe this strange speech, so he hurried his horse. But the coconuts fell off and he had to stop to pick them up. Then he hurried his horse all the more to make up for lost time, but the coconuts fell off again. Many time he did this, and it was night when he reached home.

There are two interesting guides contained in this short tale. First is the obvious one and the title of this post. If you are going to strive for a goal, do it deliberately. We often try to rush things and look for the overnight success or get-rich-quick scheme. The true path to a goal is a deliberate one. It doesn't have to be at a snail's pace, but we all know that racing hares seldom win the race.

The second guidepost in this tale is that there is work that must be done on the back end before achieving the goal. The man's horse did not magically load itself with coconuts. He had to spend the time first bringing the horse to the location, gathering up the coconuts, then loading the horse with them.

Our lives are no different. We aren't born great achievers. No baby can dance, sing, play a sport, or put a human being in orbit. We must all put in time and labor building the foundation of our successes before we can achieve them. This, too, is often deliberate work. But in the end, when we've "made it," we'll know why. :-)

Have a question, problem, thought, or just a comment? Want to know what fairy tales say about some other topic? Send it to me and I'll post it here!

Or, you can check out my ebook The Wisdom of Folktales Lessons on How to Live Happily Ever After available here, at Amazon.com, and Smashwords.com. It's a collection of folk and fairy tales from around the world and the advice they illustrate to help you live that happy life!