Stay on the Rails No Matter What

As a child I loved to immerse myself in Golden Books. I loved the little stories and pictures and would read them over and over again. I held on to most of them and now delight in sharing them with my daughter.

Little Golden Books are just that as they contain within in them little Golden pieces of wisdom. Who ever knew as a child that the words of a golden book held such priceless lessons that could teach us how to live a rewarding, successful and fulfilling life.

I re-discovered some of their pearls of wisdom just yesterday when I was reading to Kalyra the book ‘Tootle.’

Tootle is a baby locomotive who attends a school for engines so he can learn how to be a big locomotive. He attends many classes but the most important is ‘Staying on the Rails No Matter What!’ His instructor is adamant that the trains will never be any good unless they can get 100 A+ in this course. They can afford to ‘spill the soup pulling the diner’ and ‘turning the milk to butter now and then’ but if they come off the rails they fail!

Tootle wanted to be the NY flyer; the fastest train around. He began to work very hard to learn all he could but as time went by he kept getting distracted by all the fun things in the meadow and he would get off the tracks to go play.

Tootle had the makings to be the fastest train on the rails but he just couldn’t stay on them. Despite all his skills and deep desires he just could no help being enticed by the meadow. He began to fail ‘Staying on the Rails No Matter What’ and he was just going nowhere. His dream to be the NY flyer was getting further from becoming a reality.

The people of the village came up with a plan to get Tootle back on track and out of playing in the meadow. Tootle knew he always had to stop at a red flag and so the villagers hid in the meadow and at every turn of Tootle’s playing they held up a red flag and Tootle stopped.

He began to feel frustrated and disappointed in the meadow. How could he have any fun when he constantly had to stop? All the fun was gone and he found himself going around and around in circles. He couldn’t understand why the meadow was such a fine place to begin with and he longed for a green flag to help him get moving again.

Eventually he saw his teacher holding a green flag on the tracks and Tootle raced to get back on track. “This is the place for me” said Tootle. “There is nothing but red flags for locomotives that get off their tracks.”

And of course Tootle then went on to become the famous ‘Two Mile a Minute Flyer!’

What a profound message this story holds for it’s reader. Think carefully about it’s message and how it applies to your life at this moment.
What is it that is in the meadow distracting you from become the ‘fastest train around?’ How do you see these eventually turning into red flags?

Distractions such as TV, facebook, wii, eating, playing, gossiping, non-productive tasks etc don’t help you to stay on track. Sure they are fun for awhile but eventually you’re going to get lost in this maze of red flags that just keep stopping you from getting to your destination. Pretty soon the fun will be gone and you will be frustrated, longing for a way out.

How are you going to get back on track and Who is going to help you?

Sometimes we need the help of a community and leaders to help us get back on track. Tootle’s community recognized his power, saw he was having difficulty staying focused on his goals and living up to his potential, and so they devised a plan to help show him the cost of his distractions and to get him back on track to becoming great.

My business has phenomenal success because it is founded on this principle. The community of people I work with in my business and the training I receive have taught me how to stay on track, ignore the diversions of the meadow and power on to be the best that I can be. There is always someone waving a green flag to help me just in case that meadow becomes too enticing.

It doesn’t matter how talented you are or how much you say you want something, if you don’t commit 100 A+ to staying on the tracks no matter what then you just aren’t going to go anywhere!