The Beaver And His Goals
By Byron and Catherine Pulsifer
It started last fall when we had a beaver move in the small stream beside our house. He immediately began taking down small trees, and within a couple of weeks our small stream turned into a small pond. Everyday he added more to his damn and to his house. We're sure you've all heard the saying, "busy as a beaver", but we never really appreciated it until we saw the work that this beaver did over a very short period of time.
With the stream now damned and his house built, we thought that would be the last of the beaver's busy activity as winter set in. But, to our amazement, he started chewing on a very large maple tree. And, we mean large. The tree is over 60 feet tall and is approximately five feet in diameter at the base. We were amazed at the challenge this beaver was attempting. Over the winter, he would come out and chew a bit more. He had setbacks as we faced major winter storms and freezing weather. We thought that he will never chew through this tree. But sure enough, when the weather allowed, he kept coming back and would chew a bit more.
With spring finally arriving, we went down to see the beaver's progress and sure enough the tree is going to come down soon!! Our beaver has now almost completely chewed around and through the entire tree.
The beaver's original goal was survival - to build a home for the winter. Working every day with that particular focus in mind, he achieved that goal. But the large maple tree he started chewing on last fall was a future goal - he wanted the large tree for the spring, to provide new food and branches to continue damning in anticipation of the spring thaw. And, even with the setbacks he faced over the winter, he never gave up.
Our point in sharing our beaver experience with you is to remind you that sometimes we have a goal to just survive, but we also need to set goals for tomorrow. And sometimes, just surviving seems to occupy all of our time - working everyday, looking after our family, going to school, and so forth. But, if you do just a little bit when times allows, and keep focused on your future goal, you will achieve it.
It is also vitally important that when faced with setbacks in achieving a goal, you need to stay focused and not let the setbacks discourage you.
We know what it means to face setbacks along the way because we were once just like the beaver. We worked it seemed just for our survival, but we also had a future goal and we constantly kept moving forward to achieve that goal. Sometimes, though, weeks would pass before we could work on our goal again, and many times we had to deal with some sort of setback. While at times we felt we would never reach our goal, we never gave up and we never lost our focus. But, over more than 5 years, we did achieve our goal.
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May we never lose sight of our collective goal for this nation and may Hulu Selangor voters show the way!!! Have a lovely day!
8 comments to JUST LIKE THE BEAVER
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Unknown Dear Angelina's mom
You have brought up salient points with which I agree. However, sometimes, the mud throwing is to expose wrong-doings especially when it has to do with accountability of public funds.
What I am more concerned about would be stamina and perseverance which are essential to the accomplishment of any goal in many fields e.g. politics or even in our own lives.
It is not easy for those on both sides of the divide or even for ourselves to soldier on if there is resistance. Yet, when overcoming obstacles and striving on to achieve goals in a steadfast manner, one may experience pain, disappointments and in doing so - experience growth, satisfaction and lessons learnt in life.
Take care and have a great day!
Salam
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QQ Zaid is the pride and the hope of every thinking Malaysian. He is much respected for his guts and principles, qualities which are becoming rare in the political arena in Malaysia.
Let's pray that the Hulu Selangor voters will show their full support for Zaid.
God bless Pakatan Rakyat.
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Anonymous "I have learned one thing in politics. There is no need for gimmicks. People think gimmicks work. It works for a while, so I’m not interested in gimmicks. I just go and tell them this is what I can do for you."
-- Zaid Ibrahim
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Anonymous Datuk Mukhriz Mahathir urged Hulu Selangor voters today to vote Barisan Nasional (BN) if they supported his father Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
~~ Malaysian Insider
What a joke!
Haha, hidup Mahathir!
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Unknown Dear QQ,
I stand with you in your hopes and prayers.
I believe there are many other like-minded Malaysians who are with us too!
Take care and have a lovely evening!
Best wishes
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Unknown Dear Anon @ 11.17am
There you go - a very pragmatic man speaks candidly and sincerely about his perspective of the political arena.
May he be blessed with a convincing win at the Hulu Selangor by-elections.
Cheers
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Unknown Dear Anon @ 4.18pm
:-) For readers who want to read the article, this is the link:
http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/index.php/malaysia/59878-mukhriz-says-hulu-selangor-is-about-zaid-vs-dr-m
Cheers
Cat-from-Sydney Hmmm...have to disagree with this analogy. The beaver knows what it's doing - short term and long term. In the political scenario, what is the "cause"? Other than throwing mud on each other? The only similarity is the "mud" factor.
Angelina's Mama