adminreunited with my mentor, who is an angler par excellence.
He combines both academic and practical experience in his bass fishing decisions. He does not just teach one the art of catching bass but also gives a lot of mind training.
He believes that one cannot be a good fisherman if he or she has a weak mind. Weak minds have a tendency to break even the brightest and promising talents. Talent without the correct frame of mind is useless just like competency without a formidable character.
According to my colleagues, the dam was richly endowed with big bass. On a good day one could easily catch many bass weighing between three and five kilogrammes in this dam.
On this particular day, the dam was filled to capacity due to the persistent rains that pounded most of the areas within the proximity of Featherstone.
Accessing attractive parts of the dam without walking in water proved to be very challenging. As is common with some fishing enthusiasts, the three of us quickly got into the water and started to scout for good fishing spots without wasting valuable fishing minutes.
However, we underestimated the energy required to wad across the dam from one fishing spot to another. Within two hours of walking in the water, the three of us were visibly tired and worn out.
On the other hand, my mentor chose the longer route by walking outside the dam structure until he got to areas he perceived to be favourable to him.
He carefully avoided wading through the water until it was necessary to do so. After observing the rate at which we were fizzling out, he said this to me: “Usapedzera matombo uchitema makunguwo idzo hanga dzichauya (Don’t waste your ammunition on unimportant prey when bigger prey is coming).
“In whatever situation you find yourself in, your brain must work more than your hands and legs. Strategists always win the fishing game. In every sport one must be careful on how he or she expends his or her energy. One must expend more energy on fishing than walking in water. One can easily get exhausted by walking in water and ultimately fail to come to the party when it matters most.”
The shocking revelation was that our short-cut was very exhaustive and time consuming though it appeared the quickest access route.
We were driven by the impulse and excitement to fish as fast as we could. In most cases excitement deters people from considering best options to use when executing specific tasks.
The temptation to plunge head on without thinking is the most common costly human behavioural pattern.
Most activities we carry out on a daily basis require us to do a value for energy or money or cost-benefit analysis. Most employees and managers expend their energy on non-productive non-value-adding activities just like us who expended our valuable fishing energy by walking in the water when it was not necessary to do so.
The coming of social networking sites such as Facebook, Whatsupp, Wayn and many others created serious networking and business opportunities for few individuals. For most individuals it is now an energy-sapping activity. I have seen people getting exhausted scrolling Whatsupp the whole morning.
I have also witnessed people being distracted from the task at hand or their work because of social networks interfering with their concentration.
With all due respect, social networking sites are enablers but not an end in themselves. On the other hand, people can also fail to achieve desired results by failing to understand where they should direct most of their energy resources.
At every company, there are activities that have to be accomplished on a daily basis. These activities can be categorised as urgent, not urgent, important and not important tasks.
Employees should expend most of their time and energy on important and urgent tasks. On the other hand, they should exert less effort on not urgent and less important routine tasks.
In every work situation managers and employees must prioritise their work in order of their importance and urgency.
It is the responsibility of management to coach their subordinates to appreciate the tasks, which they should focus their energies on.
No matter how exciting the prospects of the future are, if it is not approached with due care, attention, discipline and rigorous application of the mind, the results of the future will be a predetermined mediocrity.
The writer is a managing consultant at CLC Training International. E-mail [email protected].
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