Ep 10: How Can An Old Shipbuilding Practice Help You Succeed?

Great question, right? Well, it all started when I was talking with a couple good girl friends this last week. They were both facing some scary, cold winds in their work. You know, they were out of their comfort zone and felt exposed, like people were watching them to see how they handled a bigger situation.

And that’s when I remembered this story I’d heard four or five years ago about this old, obscure shipbuilding practice. Check out this week’s episode…

It makes sense that shipbuilders have always had to rely on their building materials to build a sea-worthy ship.

And before the advent of using steel, trees were pretty much the backbone of any ship.

Most importantly, the mainmast, the tallest mast needed to be seaworthy without question.

As shipbuilders gathered and prepared their supplies, here’s how they selected a tree that would one day serve as the mainmast.

They would look for a tree that was the right size, preferably on a hilltop. Then, they would cut down the trees around it so the future mainmast tree would face the full force of the winds without shelter.

They would let that tree receive the full force of the wind to strengthen it. The wood became stronger as it spent more time in the wind. So good, right?

No, I’m not saying the tree enjoyed that process. And it’s not a super-fun pastime for us, either. But here’s the point… we can choose to assign value to our experiences. Actually, it’s something we do without thinking about it.

We can assign blame… We can assign opinions… We can assign stories…

But what if we assign a different kind of value? What if we look at the winds that are hitting us (pelting us at times) as what can actually allow us to find strength we may never have had the chance to see prior to that experience.

It’s a similar analogy to the winds of resistance in the “Lift” episode and I hope you’re encouraged by this thought. You will finish this season stronger than when you started it.

Have an amazing week, because frankly, you’re amazing!