I’m reading a quick little book called, “Twelve Pillars” by Jim Rohn and Chris Widener. It’s not my usual type of reading. It’s a novel, a little short story.
In it a business man name Michael meets Charlie, the gardener of the estate of a very wealthy, wise man. Michael asks Charlie if he could share any of the wisdom the wise man has taught him over the years. Charlie is quick to start dropping the wisdom bombs! He lays them out in the form of twelve pillars.
One of the pillars is The Gift of Relationships.
Michael immediately starts in with a litany of excuses for why he doesn’t have time to invest in his relationships. He’s too busy. Life if too hard.
To this Charlie responds:
Of course it’s hard. Life is hard. Success is hard. If you want easy, you can have it, but you won’t get much of anything else, especially not anything of value.
That which is valuable is hard to get.
That’s why we see effort is needed. People are hard. You are hard to be around. I am hard to be around.
It is a fact of life.
People aren’t perfect. That makes it hard to deal with them. But we are only people, especially if you want to be successful. You cannot succeed by yourself.
Boom!
Of course it’s hard. Take easy if you want it, but only hard is really worth it. And yes, we’re all hard to be around sometimes, but we need each other. We are meant to travel this life together.
If you want to be successful, in your marriage, in your parenting, in your friendships, in your work, or any other area of your life, it’s going to require meaningful relationships.
Opening up to learn from someone who’s been there before will lighten the load.
Yes, it will still be hard, but it will be lighter. You will be encouraged. You’re much less likely to quit. You’re much more likely to end up where you really want to go.
Valuable is hard to get, but it’s worth it.
to more love,
Crystal
