The fat toad who wanted to rise

The fat toad who wanted to rise
Adapted from a tale in Hans Bemann’s, “The Stone and the Flute”.

There was once a large fat toad with beautiful golden eyes who had grown fat eating swamp flies. When not eating flies he dreamed of eating flies and amidst his dreams he would say, "One day I shall have so many flies and I shall rise above all of this.”

His dreams became so real that eventually he stopped catching and eating flies, thinking only of the myriad flies he would have one day when he would rise above his circumstances. He stopped eating flies. He became thinner.His beautiful golden eyes lost their lustre.

A stork pecked him up, swallowed him and flew high in the air to share him with her chicks.

Fortunately he was so bony he stuck in her throat and she coughed him out. As he came falling and floating back to the swamp, he said, “I don’t think I wanted to rise quite that high.”
He took that as a lesson. He stopped dreaming of things that might one day be as if they were guaranteed just by having been dreamed, and started catching and eating his daily feed of flies once more.

My Kick in the Pants for You:
Yes. Dare to dream. Dream big dreams for small dreams have no magic. But don’t forget to catch and eat your flies today.

Recommendation

There’s a lot of hooey going around about Work-Life Balance. The general blah goes, join a gym, leave work early, meditate, eat more vegetables and fish, ride bikes with your children, turn off the TV, and my favourite; “take time for you” (Sigh!!) It’s all good advice, but for most busy leaders it might as well be, “Wear flowers in your hair, fray your bell-bottoms, paint your Kombi Van in psychedelic colours and go around saying, “Heavy, Man”." It doesn’t touch responsible leaders whose heads are in another universe entirely. This book does. It’s by my favourite author so I recommend it strongly to frazzled leaders or partners of leaders whose dreams have developed middle aged droop.
Get it here.

Cheers
Colin Pearce
Raconteur