Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff…Really?

In my training as a maritime lawyer, I became extremely cautious of the saying “Don’t sweat the small stuff” being witness to the colossal damage 'small stuff ' could cause, especially if such small stuff came in form of barnacles.

A barnacle is a marine crustacean, no bigger than an oyster, which attaches itself to mainly sedentary or somewhat inactive surfaces in the sea like docked ships. If left undisturbed, barnacles increase rapidly in number eventually swamping the bottom and sides of the ship.

While this initially appears harmless, it actually triggers a chain of events. The barnacular attachment increases the roughness of the hull , distorting the vessel's hydrodynamics, causing 'hull-drag' ( when the speed and manoeuvrability of a ship has been compromised), making the ship burn more fuel in order to maintain its cruising speed, resulting in an increase in transportation costs as fuel accounts for 50% of maritime transportation related costs . The U.S Naval Academy estimates that such hull-drag increases the Navy's petroleum costs by as much as $250 Million every year …and that is ONLY the U.S Navy.
Don't sweat the small stuff…really?

Although seemingly remote , this analogy becomes extremely relevant when we realise we are all like ships on a journey and every now and again, in some areas of our lives , sometimes consciously or unconsciously ,regardless of who's to blame , we “dock'”. It could be due to redundancy, a bad decision, a failed marriage, abuse, lost opportunities or life just happened. Bottom line is after a while we stop trying, stop growing, stop reaching, stop moving. And life's 'barnacles' ever so subtly begin to attach themselves to us ; the 'barnacle' of self-doubt, the 'barnacle' of limiting beliefs , 'barnacles' that encourage us to simply settle, 'barnacles' that hold us back when we want to take the risk and bet on ourselves, 'barnacles' that cause us to turn away from amazing things because they seem too good to be true and "surely that can't happen to me", until they've swamped our thought process and inevitably our lives. Worse still is we can be in total denial of their existence as barnacles don't attach to the visible parts of the ship but start with the bottom of the ship , the most difficult part to observe, easily ignored and only evident by the results produced.

The first law in John Maxwell’s book the ' 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth' is the Law of Intentionality. Growth doesn't just happen; you have to be intentional about it. The maritime industry doesn't just wait hoping the barnacles will fall off on their own accord. No, it spends billions of dollars (recently estimated at $ 124 Billion … a year!) hiring scuba divers to go down with chisel and hammer to chip off the barnacles from the affected ships.

So it is with life, if you ever feel stuck, instead of just hoping for change, get intentional about doing something about it. Get out of your comfort zone, your 'dock' and get life's 'scuba divers' professionally trained to go deep, identify and chip off your 'barnacles'. Call them coaches, mentors or teachers it doesn’t matter. What matters is that everybody needs one! I’m one to a lot of people but first I had to find mine ... my "Scuba Divers' that were not afraid to chip at my 'barnacles' and I did in the training faculty of the John Maxwell Team and boy! Did they chip off the 'barnacles' holding me back or what?

You've been in life's harbour too long, it’s time to move streamline, get intentional, get help, get a coach, grow…reach…because in spite of what your 'barnacles' may have caused you to believe, anything … really … is possible!

About the Author:

Mfon Ekpo is a Maritime lawyer and a professional negotiator who has served as a training consultant for the Supreme Court of Nigeria on Alternative Dispute Resolution. An international speaker, development coach and performance strategist, she helps individuals and organisations actualise their core mandate by training them on how to ‘Discover, Develop and Deploy'. A member of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law and a founding partner of the John Maxwell Team, she also serves on the President's Advisory Council. She is presently the Director of Strategy, Red Media Africa and C.O.O of The Future Project Africa.

Contact Mfon at http://www.johncmaxwellgroup.com/mfonekpo