Just a few days ago, I had a Zoom chat with Mark, my pragmatic and practical financial planner. As we ended our chat, he reminded me to “look after the golden goose.” Mark knows me well. He knows my tendency to push hard when I am focused on my work. He has seen me crash and burn when I haven’t been maintaining a healthy work-life balance.
Given the pressures we are under at this time, we all need to be looking after the golden goose. In case you’ve forgotten it, let me remind you of Aesop’s fable of the golden goose that laid golden eggs.
There was once a Countryman who possessed the most wonderful Goose you can imagine,
for every day when he visited the nest,
the Goose had laid a beautiful, glittering, golden egg.
The Countryman took the eggs to market and soon began to get rich.
But it was not long before he grew impatient with the Goose
because she gave him only a single golden egg a day.
He was not getting rich fast enough.
Then one day, after he had finished counting his money,
the idea came to him that he could get all the golden eggs at once
by killing the Goose and cutting it open.
But when the deed was done, not a single golden egg did he find,
and his precious Goose was dead.
In his book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey reminded us that we are all golden geese and we are all capable of laying golden eggs. But we can’t lay golden eggs if we are not practising self-care.
If we don’t look after ourselves, everything we hold dear will be lost to us. Our relationships, our hopes and dreams, our legacy, and our ability to contribute and be a positive agent of change in the world.
Top three essentials for self-care
When I realise I need to step up my self-care routine, I go back to my tried and true list of my top three essentials for self-care and make sure I am having:
- restful and restorative sleep (includes taking magnesium before bed to counteract an over-active mind),
- exercise (walking our border collies is both fun and relaxing), and
- good food.
Take time this week to look after your golden goose!