Can you see your Cathedrals?

In his brilliant book, “Don’t sweat the Small Stuff (and it’s all small stuff)”  Richard Carlson writes about two bricklayers.

The first, when asked what he is doing, replies, “I am an underpaid, overworked slave. I waste my time stacking one brick on top of another”

The secondbricklayer, asked the same question, replies “I am the luckiest person in the world. I get to help turn bricks into magnificent peices of art”

The difference? The second bricklayer can see the Cathedral.

What are the cathedrals in your work? in your life? in your relationships? and especially in your weight loss? can you see the whole, organic structure that all your little bricks make up?

With my weight loss, I am beginning to see the cathedral. The difficult thing is to truly make the connection between the bricks - the little things I do each day, each mouthful I eat, each craving I resist, each exercise session and decision to take the stairs, and the Cathedral - The healthy, slim, attractive body I am aiming for. It’s important to visualise the endpoint and make that connection.

On the other hand, it’s important to enjoy the journey too - I imagine even the bricklayer who can’t see the cathedral would take pleasure in going home with the knowledge that he had worked hard and accomplished a wall that day.

In my work it’s a little harder, because the Cathedral and the individual bricks exist at the same time. But I do find it satisfying to think of each little task in relation to the operation of the whole, a part of the structure of the organisation and what it acheives and maintains. What does that have to do with weight loss? Well, if you are happy in your work, you are less stressed, less discontent, and less likely to binge to aleviate those feelings. Generating that calmness within yourself is an essential tool for life as well as weight loss.

But to do that, to acheive that unconditional happiness in your life, you do need to be able to see the Cathedral.