A new day … and a new metaphor for growth.
Though this one is, really, a metaphor for not growing.
I stumbled across the story of Sisyphus, the mythological Greek tyrant who angered the gods, about 15 years ago when I was midway through writing Rolling Rocks Downhill.
(It inspired the book’s title.)
The gods punished Sisyphus by forcing him to “roll an immense boulder up a hill only for it to roll back down every time it neared the top, repeating this action for eternity” (wikipedia).
Eternity … is an infinitely long time …but it feels even longer when you’re doing something horrible.
Sisyphus’s story is a story of not growing.
Of doing the same thankless task over and over again.
Of feeling trapped.
It was the perfect metaphor for my professional life at the time.
Though, unlike Sisyphus, I didn’t deserve to be punished by doing work I hated, over and over again.
I remember walking downhill to the train station on my way to work, daydreaming about tripping and hurting myself just enough that I wouldn’t have to go into work.
I was trapped, not in my own skin (like a snake), but by the circumstances.
Or so I thought … at the time.
Looking back, I was trapped (constrained) because … well … I felt like I was trapped.
I couldn’t see a way out.
Tomorrow I’ll share the name of the book that helped me escape.
It might help you one day. Or a colleague. Or a loved one.
It was, quite possibly, the best $40 I’ve ever spent.
Yours …
… Clarke - the guy who loves it when you hit reply!
