Are you working harder than you need to?

I was sitting at the dining room table typing away when I heard a strange flutter sound behind me.

At first, I thought it was a fly caught in a spider web. But to my surprise, it was a dragonfly trying to fly through the window.

While I was excited to see the little guy, I also wanted to ensure he reached his desired destination safely. So, I offered my finger as a lift. He refused my offer.

My next attempt was a yellow post-it note.

He must not like yellow!

Instead of jumping on the bright little paper he repeatedly flew full force into the window, hitting his head over and over again.

The last thing I wanted to do was injure my new friend, so I let him be.

Of course, I checked on him from time to time. Each time I looked over he seemed more exhausted.

Soon, I found him lying sideways. I jumped into action, grabbing my post-it note to save the dying dragonfly.

Just as I touched him, he started his wings as if they were a motor and began banging his head into the window.

Once again, I let him be.

A bit later, I peeked over to see how my friend was doing. I found him in the corner of the window seal stuck in a spider web. The spider was also in the web but hadn’t attacked yet.

Here was my chance to save little dragonfly. I scooped up my post-it note and gently created an exit strategy by blocking the spider and cutting the web.

He was now stuck to the post-it note and I could finally get him outside safely.

Once we were outside, I found a small twig lying on the ground and used it to remove the sticky residue from the dragonfly’s legs and wings.

His wings fluttered but he was still stuck to the post-it note. I removed more of the residue and he took flight, without banging his head this time.

Watching him fly away I thought, “I wonder how often we do this very same thing to ourselves!”

We find ourselves hitting our heads against the wall thinking we are going to create a solution to our problem when all we need to do is stop and wait for a post-it note to take us right where we want to go.

Instead, we work so hard that we end up stuck in a spider web not able to move.