24/08/2024
The Mighty Men's Special: Choice
We will ultimately face many challenges in our jouney, may we have the courage to accept them and be filled with wisdom to adapt, learn, overcome and grow. We can, can't we?
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A Pebble in My Shoe – A Story About Dealing with Problems by Darren Poke
Tom and his mentor Dwyer were on their customary weekly walk through the forest when Dwyer sat down on a large rock to take off his shoe.
“What are you doing?” asked Tom.
“I have a pebble in my shoe,” explained Dwyer.
“What are you stopping for? I have a pebble in my shoe as well, but we don’t have time to stop, so stop slowing us down.”
“I can assure you Tom, me stopping isn’t holding us back at all, but will end up saving us time and probably pain further down the track.”
“Pfft,” said the young man as he turned and walked on by himself, leaving the old man behind to remove the annoying pebble.
After about 20 minutes of walking, Tom could hear footsteps behind him and was surprised to see Dwyer making ground on him.
“Why are you limping?” the old man asked with a glint in his eye.
“You know why? I have a pebble in my shoe!” Tom retorted.
“Why don’t you just stop and remove it?”
“Because I don’t have time.”
They walked side by side for a while, but eventually, despite his best efforts and pride, Tom’s sore foot really started to slow him down and his limp became more pronounced.
He was determined not to show any pain, but he was conscious that he was now slowing down his walking partner, so he sat down on a large log and took off his shoe to remove the pebble.
When he did, he noticed a small amount of blood seeping through his sock. He removed that too and saw that he had a very sore, bleeding welt where the pebble had been rubbing.
He grimaced as he looked up at his mentor who smiled broadly, showing very little pity for his young protege.
“You know what the message here is don’t you? Always deal with problems straight away. You may think that you don’t have the time, but you’ll save yourself a lot of time and pain if you get the pebble out of your shoe before you get too far down the road.”
Tom nodded as he put his bloodied sock back on.
Life is full of pebbles that find their way into our shoes.
They could be relationship issues, financial issues or problems at work.
Let me encourage you today to take the time to deal with problem now before they cause you too much pain and cost you time in the future.
