Thursday, October 27, 2011

It's not about the pumpkins

I was carving pumpkins last night with the kids.  My oldest, against my recommendation, chose the hardest design of all.  Half way through carving, he realized that he had ruined his pumpkin and there was only one pumpkin left that hadn't been carved.  Mine.

A deep internal dilemma ensued.

What to do?  "I told you not to pick that design because it was too hard."  Embarrassingly enough, that's what I would normally say.  But last night I had a miraculous moment of clarity where I realized... it's not about the pumpkins.

It's not about picking a vegetable, printing out some crazy picture and cutting up your vegetable to be used as a decoration.  That part we do because everyone else does it.  The value is not in the pumpkin, it's in the relationships we build while we carve them.

I make this mistake too often.  Not just in relationships, but also in business.  I start a project (or a family tradition) for a very valid reason.  Then somewhere along the line, I lose sense of why I started it in the first place.  At that point, I need to regroup and try again.

Do you continue to call on the same customers because you feel like you have to?  If it's not getting you closer to your true goals, stop doing it.  Are you attending the same church as your family because they want you there?  Ask yourself if the goal of going to church is to build a relationship with family or with God.

It's not easy to evaluate your actions, and the decisions that follow are even tougher.  I encourage you to regain sight of why you started doing the things that you do.  Feel free to keep carving, but remember... it's not about the pumpkins.