The farmer and the donkey

Photo by Jim Chaput
Written by Jim Chaput
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After a 19-year career in financial services, Jim left a leadership position to focus on health and fitness. Jim is a Master Practitioner of Applied Movement Neurology and holds Certificates in Applied Functional Science and 3DMAPS from the Gray Institute. His passion is empowering people to help resolve the pain, tension and insomnia that prevents them from living well.

I recently heard the story of the farmer and his donkey (author unknown). It holds such great lessons that I had to share it.

One day a farmer’s donkey fell down into a well. The animal cried piteously for hours as the farmer tried to figure out a way to get him out. Finally the farmer decided it was probably impossible. The animal was old and the well was dry anyway, so it just wasn’t worth it to try and retrieve the donkey. So the farmer asked his neighbors to come over and help him cover up the well. They all grabbed shovels and began to shovel dirt into the well.

At first, the donkey cried horribly when he realized what was happening. Then, to everyone’s amazement, he quieted down and let out some happy brays. A few shovel loads later, the farmer looked down the well to see what was happening and was astonished by what he saw. With every shovel of dirt that hit his back, the donkey was shaking it off and taking a step up.

As the farmer’s neighbors continued to shovel dirt on top of the animal, he continued to shake it off and take a step up. Pretty soon, to everyone’s amazement, the donkey stepped up over the edge of the well and trotted off!

Life is going to shovel dirt on you. The trick to getting out of the well is to shake it off and take a step up. Every adversity can be turned into a stepping stone. The way to get out of the deepest well is by never giving up but by shaking yourself off and taking a step up. What happens to you isn’t nearly as important as how you react to it.

Other lessons from this story:

  • Sometimes crazy ideas turn out to be great solutions
  • Decisions we make can have unintended consequences (good or bad)
  • Sometimes people act in the way they think best without considering whatโ€™s best for you. It can still turn out to be exactly what you needed.

What problems have you overcome that led you somewhere better than you expected?

1 Comment

  1. Pat

    My daughter needed to close one of her studios; but s didnโ€™t want to lose her clients.
    She kept her spirits up, stayed patient and waited for a solution. Because of the terrible Virus, she figured out how to hold her classes via the internet. She is reaching even more people and It is all working out for the best.
    Keep the faith & keep trying.๐Ÿ‘ ๐ŸŒˆ๐Ÿ˜‡