Happiness is…chosing the right rocks to climb

Happiness is…chosing the right rocks to climb

Just over a month ago, as the warmer, summer months were coming to an end here in Sydney, Australia, I went for a Sunday afternoon swim with my beautiful 11-year old daughter. I’d had a great weekend, a very constructive Sunday, and this was the perfect way to finish off a two day break from the office.

Thankfully, and somewhat surprisingly, the water was still very bearable; in fact, it was perfect, and we had a lovely paddle across one of Sydney’s hidden treasures and onto one of the world’s most stunning rock platforms. You see, as much as she loves swmming my daughter also loves climbing over and exploring rocks so this little adventure killed two birds with one stone.

Now as we were walking over the rocks, chatting and having a lovely old time, my daughter’s slightly competitive spirit came out and she decided she wanted to race me to a point several metres away. But having longer and stronger legs, not to mention signfiicantly more experience skooting over rocks and other obstacles, I easily beat her by quite a margin. Not one to take defeat lying down, however, she turned around and noted that she’d only lost because she “chose the wrong rocks”!

After I’d had a little chuckle to myself I began, as I’m want to do, to ponder her innocent but profound comment! And I came to conclude that she was 100% correct and also, that she’d hit upon a seriously important metaphor for life…

…because life has many challenges and we’re all faced with many obstacles. Whether we like it or now we all have “rocks” over which we need to scramble or climb. And for many of us, the number of rocks is so numerous that we can’t possibly climb over them all! So we have to choose which ones to climb over and which ones to go around or even to ignore.

As my young daughter so wisely noted, life and happiness are about chosing the right rocks over which to go and also, just as importantly, which ones to avoid. What do you have in your life that you’re struggling with but which could be ignored or avoided? What do you have in your life that you really do need to address? Make your decisions carefully as this could very well determine how much happiness and success you have versus how much suffering or pain.

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