Once upon a time, a young man named Alex worked at a factory as a low-level technician. His mentor, Felix, gave him this piece of advice: “Work diligently at your job and always do whatever you've been asked to do without complaining.” The young man took his advice to heart and did exactly that. He would do any task he was assigned. Overtime he was able to handle all the different technical tasks in the factory.
One day Alex visited his mentor; the mentor, noticing the sad look on his face, asked him what's going on. Alex went on to share that he has diligently followed Felix's advice yet his coworkers have all been getting promoted while he's still at the same level with the same pay for years now. "Are you sure you can handle all the technical tasks?”, Felix asked. "Yes, I can", Alex replied. Felix then advised him to take a day off for any reason of his choice. Reason being that he had become indispensable. The young man so excited thanked his mentor and immediately left to submit the time off request.
When he resumed work after the day off, his manager welcomed him happily and said that they had a lot of trouble in his absence since there were several things that only he could handle. Realizing how indispensable he was, his manager decided to promote him to the position of Senior Technician with a pay raise. The young man overjoyed by this was excited to try it once more. As time went by, he would take a day off occasionally and when he returned, things got better. This further encouraged him to take time off more frequently, and on his return, he found better circumstances at work.
One fateful day, Alex got to work to realize that he had been fired. What an unpleasant surprise. He went to his mentor to get some answers about why it happened. His mentor on hearing this, said: "You made a mistake, you didn't hear the second part of my advice". "Really? What do you mean?" the young man asked. "No one notices a light bulb that's always shinning, except when it goes out". You had become indispensable, yet since you were always there, you were taken for granted. Your absence got them to realize how important you were. However, if a light bulb keeps going on and off frequently, it gets replaced by a new one which functions normally. No one wants to keep a light bulb that malfunctions. Alex immediately understood that he got fired because of his frequent absences.
There are two fundamental lessons here. The first is never to take anything in your life for granted especially the people around you; your family, spouse, kids or friends. Every light bulb eventually goes off if it's neglected. Cherish and value the people in your life while you still can. Always pour into them as they pour into you to maintain the relationship. Every relationship thrives on reciprocity. Make sure you feed what or who feeds you, because if you don't, it will die. We often tend to value things in retrospect, when we've lost them already. There is a better way though. Choose to value the people in your life before it's too late.
The second lesson is the importance of balance. Taking a day off was a good way for Alex to show his manager how much he mattered. However, he went overboard and became frequently absent, causing him his job. In life, you need to balance things up. Food is good for you, but too much of it will ruin your health. Entertainment is good for you, but too much of it will make you broke as you'll be wasting your time. In your relationship, you need to balance mystery and familiarity to keep it exciting. You need to balance security with adventure to build a long-term relationship. You can't be so focused on chasing fame, or money that you neglect your family. There are several opposites in life that you need to carefully navigate and balance up well.
To learn more about finding work-life balance, check out this video. We hope you were inspired by this story. Don't forget to SUBSCRIBE to our blog for more enriching content. Thank you for reading and until next time, BESTech remains your Best Bet.