How to Make Yourself More Valuable to Others
The Grindstone
Keeping your nose to the grindstone is a phrase I’m sure you’ve heard. It implies doing work, though not pleasant, which will hopefully pay off. Similarly, it is shortened on occasion to just “˜the grind’ or “˜the daily grind.’ Again, it’s not considered pleasant, but necessary.
Let’s go to the root of this. A grindstone was used in the “˜olden days’ to sharpen a metal tool by grinding it against a wheel carved of stone that was set on a wooden framework and turned with a foot pedal. The metal of the tool held against the spinning course stone was literally “˜ground’ to a sharper point, thereby making the tool more useful and valuable. It actually made the work performed by the tool easier. How ironic. The “˜grinding’ made the subsequent work done with the tool easier to perform.
That’s a bit like our lives. They are not smooth, but as we go through the “˜grind’ of daily living, if we don’t give up and slink away, that grinding actually makes us sharper, more useful, actually more valuable because the roughness has smoothed us. Then, because we end up being sharper, more useful, our living, in turn becomes easier. We’ve become better because of the “˜grinding’ we’ve endured.
Remember that when you encounter a period of rough living. Let it grind a bit. Allow it to make you sharper. In the end it makes life easier.
