Okay, this is not going to be an Easter article, allright? :-) So don´t get confused by the picture.
Good. Last time I wrote about March being one of the most stressful and (workwise)demanding month in the year. But keep in mind - work is not everything. In fact, it´s often far more important what we do in our free time, not in the office during our flexible 8 - 12 h day shifts...
In his highly acclaimed book called The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People, Stephen R. Covey (among other things) mentions what he calls the P / PC Balance. This is a balance between the production of desired results (P) and the production capability or maintenance of the producer (PC). An excessive amount of focus in either production or production capacity will have disastrous results according to Covey.
The P/PC Balance principle can be easily understood by remembering Aesop´s fable of the goose and the golden egg. This fable is the story of a poor farmer who one day discovers in the nest of his pet goose a glittering golden egg. At first, he thinks it must be some kind of trick. But as he starts to throw the egg aside, he has second thoughts and takes it in to be appraised instead.
The egg is pure gold! The farmer can’t believe his good fortune. He becomes even more incredulous the following day when the experience is repeated. Day after day, he awakens to rush to the net and find another golden egg. He becomes fabulously wealthy; it all seems too good to be true.
But with his increasing wealth comes greed and impatience. Unable to wait day after day for the golden eggs, the farmer decides to kill the goose and get them all at once. But when he opens the goose, he finds it empty. There are no golden eggs – and now there is no way to get any more. The farmer has destroyed the goose that produced them.
I suggest that within this fable is a natural law, a principle – the basic definition of effectiveness. Most people see effectiveness from the golden egg paradigm: the more you produce, the more you do, the more effective you are.
But as the story shows, true effectiveness is a function of two basic things: what is produced (the golden eggs) and the producing asset or capacity to produce (the goose).
If you adopt a pattern of life that focuses on golden eggs and neglects the goose, you will soon be without the asset that produces golden eggs. On the other hand, if you only take care of the goose with no aim toward the golden eggs, you soon won’t have the wherewithal to feed yourself or the goose. (excerpt from the book).
P.S. - my own "recovery" took place in the french Alps. For 1 beautiful sunny and warm week. On ski of course. Gonna upload some pics later..
