Fire in the Empty Lot
Authored by Linda Peters-Getchell
Accomplishing what you want to accomplish is a little like starting a fire in a vacant lot you want to develop. It is filled with dry grass and your goal is to burn it off and create your plan for that lot.
It is a hot summer day and the sun is blazing. You slather yourself with sun screen, put a folding lounge chair under your arm, a cold drink in hand, and with your trusty magnifying glass in your pocket, you head outside and walk to the vacant lot that you have plans for renovating.
You set up your chair at the edge of the lot, taking your magnifying glass out of your pocket, holding it up to allow the sun to pass through it onto a patch of dry grass. You move it from one spot to the next and your intentions of starting a fire to burn off that old dead grass is not happening.
Yes, you are trying to start a fire, but due to a lack of patience and focus, you just keep moving that magnifying glass from place to place. A few seconds here, a few seconds there, and you move it again. It’s not happening.
Suddenly the Fire Fairy lands on you knee (Fire Fairies are rare, very rare, but they tend to appear near empty lots). Startled, you question the Fire Fairy asking, “Who are you and what do you want?”
The little creature explains that she is a Fire Fairy and as such quite an expert on starting fires. She goes on to tell you that you will never start a fire the way you are going about it. “Focus your magnifying glass on one spot and hold it there until begins to burn.”
She smiles sweetly and proceeds to tell you that most people who set goals don’t know how to start a fire either.
She goes on to explain that they make their lists, create their plans and then try to make it all happen at once. They never take the time to focus on the ONE goal that can generate such an intense heat that all the other goals are accomplished with little effort and far less focus than on the one major one.
Just imagine now that your goals are represented by each and every spot you focused the heat of the sun through your magnifying glass. No fire of any type developed until you shined the glass long enough in one place to start a fire.
What happens now? It quickly consumes all the dead grass in the entire lot, every spot you attempted to ignite. All your goals were accomplished once you focused on that one spot.
The moral to the fable is FOCUS on the ONE big goal and once you get that fire started it will be amazing the extra energy you’ll have for all the other goals. THE FIRE BEGINS WITHIN YOU.
Need to start a fire within yourself?
Linda Peters-Getchell has 20 years in restaurant management and food and beverage customer service. She has owned her own restaurant and catering service, developed unique training programs and won two Key Player Awards for her customer service programs at Showboat Casino Hotel. She is currently a powerful creative force for restaurant expert David Scott Peters and his company, Smile Button Enterprises, serving as Fairy Godmother.
