Audio for The Podcast Episode:
You don't have to hammer down every nail. There will always be nails
around to be hammered. There will always be many things to do. New
things to do. Some exciting things to do. Some interesting things to do.
Some spooky things to do.
And a lot of people on your planet keep on hammering things haphazardly.
This is directly opposite to what we Rishis do here at this higher
level. Though we are all highly evolved beings, we never put our serious
efforts on everything and anything. we never do. We hammer only the
things that deserve hammering. Things that deserve light pats are given
light pats. And things that deserve mild touch are dealt with
accordingly.
There are a very few things if done can bring you your greatest
progress. Look out for them. Utilize them. Focus on them most of the
time. Give your whole self to them.
The Sutra:
Not everything deserves your serious effort. Not everything calls for
tremendous effort. You put your best efforts on things that are good
investments in your future or you hammer only those nails that are to be
hammered--- the golden nails. You don't have to put herculean efforts
in many things.
The saddest scene is when people pound things that are not at all
important and they just leave the few golden nails as such that are so
desperately waiting for their hammering!
A very long time ago while I was flying above the clouds in spirit with
two more Rishis for a mission, I witnessed the following story,
A man saw a lot of people gathered, full of vigor, waiting eagerly to
witness a race that was about to be started. The race was a grand one of
his time. He immediately approached the folks enthusiastically and
asked what was going on.
They said that a race was about to begin which was open to all and which
was conducted by the duke. The race had an enormous prize money
announced.
When he asked them if he could participate in the race, he was
immediately given the nod, as the race was open to anyone just until
before an hour it began.
Being a very fast runner and enticed by the money, this man positioned
himself for the sprint knowing deep down that he could win the race with
no or little effort. when the whistle was blown, the contenders started
to move ahead like rockets, but this man was so far ahead of others
that he finished the race well ahead of the second man who came after.
But soon after when he was just expecting that they were going to
announce his name as the winner, he heard, to his surprise, the
announcer mentioning the name of the man who came second as the winner.
Not able to believe this he asked the announcer “Why?”
“Why?” the announcer said, “you were not 'on the track' and that means
you were not racing with others. You were on the wrong track so yours
doesn’t count.”
The essence of the story is that a lot is wasted in doing excellently
things that don't count. The man was excellent but he was not running on
the "right track." To do the most important things is to be on the
right track. He was too good at what he was doing, but he was not doing
the "right thing."
“To succeed, it is of utmost importance to do things that matter, which
is to be on the right track. To do a thing exceptionally well that is
trivial in your life is a reason for time and energy wasted without
returns."
People start to get fast results when they focus most on the important
items in their life. And on a more specific level, on the most important
elements in a project or task. You get super results when you start to
hammer down the golden nails.
It's always very tempting to do very many things, and in the process one
forgets to see if all these things are important in the light of their
primary purpose in life, which is progress and betterment in various
forms.
If something hampers your forward march or even take you backwards, and
which you have been pounding so hard, identify that as a wrong nail.
Stop hammering it. It doesn't deserve your hard effort. This could even
be a bad habit that is so tempting and has kept you a slave for a long
time. You can get rid of it starting today!
Hammering takes energy and why put your resource of time and energy on
it if you are not doing the most important tasks. Worse yet is when what
you hammer is taking you backward!
Even a busiest and most successful person on your planet who does
numerous things in a day cannot hammer all the things that he/she has on
the table. If you take a close look at them, you'll see they all,
without exception, hunt down Goliaths first, that is, the most important
things first. Other less important things are either deputed or done at
“lesser degree” than what can be called hammering, the real serious
effort approach.
Typically, people who are super success know which nails are the golden
ones. They identify the most important tasks or steps first and always.
They are always good at this.
Average people keep pounding on whatever they can get their hands on.
Some, they never do the “hammering”. They never put any kind of sincere
and life-changing efforts in anything. They stay at the bottom most.
There is this general belief on your planet that successful people
almost always do umpteen number of things and hence they are victorious.
The truth is they always focus on the “most important and most
rewarding” things all the time. And mostly, these things are not very
many.
When the focal energy is dissipated in hammering here and hammering
there instead of hammering down hard the golden nails, nothing
significant is ever achieved. The bliss is not experienced.
A feeling of “I want more...come on, keep looking out for new things to
do” surrounds you. You feel restless, you feel you have to cover a lot
of stuff and often within a time frame. you feel like you have to keep
running to catch up with all the lined-up “to-do” things. No one is
pushing you to do these, but you are. You can get rid of this “big line”
today! Keep your life simpler!
Bringing many things unnecessarily on to the table is the reason for all
the feeling of restlessness, chaos, hollowness, get-more-do-more
tendency, and the bad feeling that inevitably would arise from not being
able to "catch up" with the big queue that never seems to end; the
queue that you create which you really don't need at all!
And one more thing is that since you also are pounding a lot of things
lately, soon you become exhausted in every way possible. Why? Because of
the large number assorted items you do.
If you are in a position such that you have to do many things, by all
means go on to do them but, look for ways to do the “Most important” now
and see if you can delegate some. Normally, people have a “lot of'
trivial things” to do on their plate and a very few “major” items. In a
day we can always do much by doing the “most important” items and by
deleting the bunches of “unnecessary” items.
In other words, cutting back on trivial things can free up a lot of
mental space for you. Going for a movie to renew and refresh your mind
is not a trivial thing, since you get a good return for the action in
the form a rejuvenated mind.
But the secret is identifying the “golden nails” and putting your
hammering skills on them. Let those tasks, activities, important trips,
that crucial email you need to send, that hearty greeting and hug with
your spouse, that little encouragement your child longingly awaits from
you, that refreshment time at the hotel, all receive your serious
attention.
That's why they say life is easy but we make it complicated. The
"effort" part in life will never drain your energy but the
"focus-on-many-things" part will.
Deprive your habits that have been pulling you down...never again hammer them. They don't deserve it.
Many golden nails are still waiting to be hammered because of your fear.
Let that fear that has kept you a slave die a lonely death from your
courageous step. Let it know that you don't put your serious thinking on
it anymore, which is a form of hammering down. That fear has managed to
live because of your thinking. Not anymore!
So it is:
• Doing excellently things that don't matter (like that
man who participated in that race. He was not on the
track that mattered...for his success.)
• Spending a lot of time on trivial things.
• Doing things that do matter in a frivolous way.
Important things need serious efforts, they need
"hammering."
• Not doing as much as one must the things that
produce the best returns. How much time one
spends in a day on those few all-important things.
Hammer only the golden nails!
