Sun-Tzu was a Chinese general, military strategist, and author from ancient China. He wrote a book called The Art of War. I read that book ages ago, along with Musashi's Book of Five Rings, long enough that I probably need to go back and re-read both of them.
One big thing stuck with me from The Art of War though. I'm paraphrasing here, but one of Sun-Tzu's teachings was about knowing limitations. When you know both your own and your opponents limitations, you can turn them into assets.
In my recent meditative work with compassion, that lesson keeps being driven home for me. Today's no exception. I was supposed to have an early morning dentist's appointment on my way into work this morning. It would have been about 11 minutes ago. But yesterday, I got sick. I came home, got some good care from Missy, and went to bed, hoping that'd be enough to set me right for everything I had to do today.
It wasn't.
But that's okay. I called the dentist's office, and left them a message about it. I'm sure they'll call me back with a different appointment time and date to go back. No big deal. I do feel rested enough, and am now up early enough, to get all sorts of things done:
- Catchup my blog
- Do some needed work for the Big Little Podcast
- Go out and get myself some over the counter medicine so I can go to work
- And actually, still go to work.
Because I know I can't do everything, I can spend my energy resources wisely to do some things. That's not failure, that's success with the resources I have. I'm grateful for the lesson.