A Pleasing Life Requires Success

How pleasing is your life? Too often you might think that you need things in life to have a pleasant life. Pleased and comfort are not the same thing.

Today, I worked for several hours on making buckets. Yes, buckets. I am an apprentice cooper. I make buckets from wood and metal bands, and I use hand tools to make them. It is not often that I get to work at coopering. Because of that, it is a slow learning process. Today I stood up three buckets and then scorped out the insides to prepare them for bottoms.

That means that I took all the individual wood pieces, staves, and stood them on end and then put working hoops over them to hold them together to make the walls of the bucket. I then used a one-handed draw knife called a scorp to clean out the excess wood and make a perfect circle so the bottom will make a perfect fit and be watertight. This is a labor intensive process and takes skill and muscle. It has taken me over 100 hours to get to the skill level of making the angles so the bucket is round. Today I learned to perfect getting the interior round.

What is the result? We have some good looking buckets that are nearly ready for sale. I will finish up buckets on Wednesday. They look good and are watertight.

Are You Used To Hard Work?

One thing I learned as I practice the art of coopering is that I am not used to hard physical labor. As I seek to improve my skill, I must improve my conditioning. (Bent over rows are really good to get in shape for coopering.) When I improve, my performance improves. I think back to my ancestors and the hard work they did. As they aged, they could produce less, so things got tougher if they were on their own. Family was important because you needed them to survive as age took its course. There are obviously plenty of examples of men and women who didn’t need that help, but most people hoped to have family they could rely on for their later years.

Today, hard work often looks different. It isn’t necessarily taxing physically, but the toughness of our work is still there. Many of our ancestors would be completely baffled by the labors we perform. We need mental toughness. Do you have what it takes, or are you hoping to just get by when the work demands?

Mental Toughness Is Not Ignoring Things

I know a lot of people who think that just ignoring the thoughts and feelings that are bothering them will lead to success. Just ignoring them allows them to settle in unnoticed. They canker and make us ill or depressed. I am still learning to master the process of recognizing my thoughts and dealing with them. When negative thoughts start pounding on me, I pound back. I declare what I want my thoughts to be and I push back until I win the battle. Regularly, I sing a powerful song that combats the negativity. I daily write down my successes of the day so I see my accomplishments. Because I do this, I don’t have to wonder what I accomplish, I see it.

You don’t have to go through life feeling beaten down. Know that you are successful. You can be more successful. I see it in you. I know you have it in you. Choose to see it in yourself. Declare who you are and don’t let any negative thoughts convince you otherwise.

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