Couple months ago, my family and parents went together for a vacation in a resort located in a valley surrounding by hills. It’s my dad typical holiday destination.
It’s in Gambung, southern part of Bandung. The scene is terrific, the air is so fresh but it’s also freezing down there for us. The good thing was our villa got a furnace to keep us warm.

At dusk, I was so excited to set up the furnace on fire. I started to stack the wood, poured kerosene on it and set it on. The wood was ablaze…., but it was only for a while, then the fire went off. Apparently, the wood was not dry enough and kerosene was also limited.
Then I tried to re-arrange the pile. I used the driest wood only, and left the wet out of furnace. I poured out some kerosene and started the fire. But still, it didn’t work.

Then, out of frustration I asked the room boy to light the fire for us. And you know what? He ripped the wood into smaller pieces by his hand. Then he set them on fire. It worked… The fire consumed the smaller pieces of wood. As the fire went on, we put bigger pieces. Gradually the fire went on and it could consume other wet wood of bigger size. And yet, he didn’t use up all the kerosene. The furnace was set ablaze. We were all happy. I then asked the guy, how he learned to do it. He told me that it was from his experience, from trial and error that he could finally come up with that effective method.

Being marveled, I then realize that

·         Don’t let the challenges overcome you –
your “CAN” do attitude should come first

  • Break the challenges into smaller pieces which you CAN overcome -
    start with something you can manage first
  • As you are gaining momentum by overcoming smaller problems,
    take bigger ones and overcome them
  • Step by step, as you are pressing forward, you will be amazed by how you have gone so far and overcome the challenges

In most cases, there is always other who have undergone what you are going through. Ask for their advice. Don’t waste your resources to re-invent the wheel.

Therefore you might want to invest your time & energy to build a network of great people before the tough challenges arrive.