A carpenter, who built timber houses, told his employer of his desire to retire. The contractor was sorry to see a good workman go and asked if he could build just one more house as a personal favour.
The carpenter said yes, but it was obvious that his heart was not in his work. He resorted to shoddy work and used inferior materials. It was an unfortunate way to end his career.
When he went to hand over the keys, his boss arranged for a send-off function.
He spoke of the carpenters’ commitment to his craft and announced an
appropriate farewell gift. ‘You built the finest of homes and you deserve one
of the same,’ saying so he handed back the key of the latest house built by the
carpenter.
Imagine his predicament! If he had only known he was building his own house, he
would have done it all so differently. Now he had to live in the mediocre home
that he himself had built so poorly.
We build our lives in a distracted way, reacting rather than acting, willing to give lesser than our best effort to the task at hand. Then with a shock we look at the situation of our creation and find that we are now living in the house we have built.
If we had realized that our efforts were going to return back to us, we would have done it differently. Our life today is the result of our attitudes and choices in the past. Our life tomorrow will be the result of our attitudes and the choices we make today.
Don’t retire from giving your best
Things we do return back to rest!
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