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Good and Bad Moments
MOMENTS THAT TRANSFORM US.
Life is made of ups and downs.
Painful moments put good moments in perspective.
The essence is sold in small flasks.
There are precious moments in life, events or experiences that impact us in a way that we are transformed into another person, different from the one we were before the experience.
Some of them are memorable: a death of a beloved one, a birth of a child, a wedding, a divorce, etc. Others may go unnoticed for a long time and impact us only many years later in such a way that they change us forever.
I want to share with you one of these moments which occurred to me when I was seven years old.
It happened in the Spain of the 1960s, poor, uneducated, isolated. Despite all the limitations, I had a happy childhood. With my parents and brother, we visited our extended family every year during summer in the village where they were born. My uncles and aunts were farmers laboring the land with mules. After a long and hard day of harvesting, I was proud my uncle let me take the mules to drink at the village fountain. His name was Angel. I felt great and proud with the two huge animals behind me easily following my way. After that, they were brought back at the stall to rest for the night, eat and recover the strength for the day after.
My uncle filled their manger with straw. Then he spread a can of barley on the straw and mixed it. 90% of it was straw and 10% barley. I asked him why he did that. He told me there were a few good reasons.
- Mules love barley much more than straw. If they want to eat all the barley, they must eat all the straw. Only this will get them prepared for a hard day of work after the night.
- Filling the manger only with straw will not make them eat it all, and they will not be strong enough to work the next day.
- Feeding the mules with only a can of barley will not be enough for them to go through the next day of work.
- Filling the manger only with barley will burst their stomach.
- Straw is cheaper than barley.
I asked him how he knew all that. He told me he saw his father do it and heard him telling him the same story he was telling me.
As a seven-year-old boy, it felt as a good and fun time with my uncle Angel. I liked the story.
As I grew up and had the time to reflect on my memories, I realize that moment was a great life learning experience which helped me understand, confront, accept, and digest many facts about my life:
- I can’t only have good moments in my life. I must accept 90 of time will not be so memorable and more routinary. I will remember the good ones (my baby smiling at me) and forget the bad ones (rocking the crying baby at 3am).
- The essence is packed in small flasks to experience a drop. Intense experiences are short. They must be diluted to enjoy them. We will burst in a 1-hour ride on a roller coaster or by drinking 1 liter of a great and expensive wine.
- We can learn by experimenting how to make the mules top fit for the day after, hopefully without killing them. We can learn much faster when someone shares his experience with us.
- A short and simple experience can generate a huge and lasting learning. As a coach and mentor I take my mission is generating “barley” moments for people to learn.
How is your balance between barley and straw?
How is your balance between carbohydrate, protein and fiber? Are you well fed? How is your energy level?
Please, share your barley story. Thank you
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About Me
AGUSTIN RAMOS
Agustin is a leading coach and mentor for managers and entrepreneurs. He helps them overcome all challenges, achieve top results with their company in line with their values, grow personally and live a happier personal life.
Copyright 2024 by Agustin Ramos. All rights reserved.