Building a table

I’ve been taking out some partitioned walls at home and this has left a stack of lovely timber. Rather than burn it I decided to recycle it by making an outside table from the wood.

After all how hard can it be to build one. Four legs, a frame and a top, right? Well, umm, no not that easy.

Well not having built one before it’s a little more challenging than you think.

That’s a great life lesson, other people have skills we don’t and that’s where their value is. Often we think that the work others do is easy and should be cheap. Oh it’s just a table, just a website, just a bit of accounting…

If other people’s work is good then you are paying for their experience so that we don’t have to waste the time doing all the trial and error work to get good.

For us we just need to find the thing we’re skilled at and then build the value by becoming really good at that thing.

I’m probably not going to pursue a career in furniture building but I’m happy I had a go and recycled the wood and after I’ve built the top we’ll have a good table. It just will have taken 5 times longer than a carpenter would have.

**** Update – the now finished table

Life is like Tetris

Success in Tetris is not just about placing the block quickly or well. The most vital element and the key to success is looking at what blocks are coming up.

Anticipating what’s coming next and making a plan to what your next move could be is key as the pressure mounts.

We can learn from play and in life we need to look up and see what’s coming towards us, especially as we approach key stages or deadlines.

All too often we react to what is there and not to what could be possible. Anticipation is vital.