Yesterday was a crappy day. Problems by someone else at work consumed my time to rectify it, which took away from the things I needed to do and am still catching up on. Then on top of it I offered to help a friend after work who had some trees get knocked down by storms a week ago.

Interestingly, it was helping with the trees, something I wouldn’t normally do or think I would enjoy otherwise, that brought back the spark that was snuffed out during the day.

Godzilla vs. The Mighty Oak

If any of you reading know me, you are probably already laughing at the fact of me helping someone with fallen trees. Even my own kid said that I am not known as a nature person. As I responded to my friend this thought came to mind, but I offered as it would certainly be a case of strength in numbers, plus my friend and others helping knew of my, well, affinity to nature as well.

Getting to his house meant passing downed trees for literally a mile. When I pulled into his place, a couple of other friends were helping him split the last of a few logs off the driveway. Though I was a little late, I was just in time, as the next task was to tackle a giant oak – 30 feet if it was not 100 – that was in his backyard. If you are unfamiliar with oak, it’s heavy, and as it was a recently fallen tree, it was still “alive” and full of moisture, which when it dries out will make it a little lighter.

After helping to wheel the log splitter down the slope of the backyard – no small feat in itself – it was time to start splitting the tree. It was cut into segments with chainsaws, and then the arm of the log splitter, named Godzilla, would scoop up the roughly 2-foot segments to be split. Splitting the logs, which were anywhere from 6 inches to almost 2 feet in diameter, required multiple passes through the splitter, which is a hydraulic press that forces the log into a sharp wedge. Splitting a large, heavy segment into 2 made for 2 slightly smaller and slightly less heavy pieces, which needed to be further split, hauled and stacked. All of this for one segment, only to repeat for each one. Lather, rinse, repeat.

I was assigned the task of operating the splitter, as the other guys used chainsaws to cut up the tree, and then were doing the stacking of the cut pieces. Where I never used a splitter before, I certainly didn’t use a chainsaw either. As the splitter was stationary and straightforward to operate, I guided Godzilla in the splitting of this fallen tree for winter firewood.

Where I certainly would have failed a log splitting efficiency test, after several pieces I was getting the hang of it, and frankly found it to be fun! I was nowhere near as agile \ as my friend whose backyard and tree this was, but as he said he was splitting wood since childhood, I wasn’t worried about speed. Plus I wanted to make sure I kept all of my fingers on each hand.

As the last flickers of light from the sun shone on us, we wrapped up the last piece of this mighty oak. What started out as a Herculean task without a solid plan turned into an achievement of firewood and, for me at least a great sense of accomplishment… not only in completing the task, but in completely forgetting about the crappy day I had earlier.

Changes in Latitude

Afterwards talking about task we wrapped up, over beers and brats, I commented on how much fun this was for me. Much of my time is spent within my comfort zone. I don’t necessarily plan or go out of my way to ensure I am in that comfort zone, but it’s where I end up spending my time. Getting out of it, in a heavily wooded area that looked nothing like where I live but a mere few miles slightly north of me, is what the doctor ordered for this day.

Where I may not be adding log splitting to my LinkedIn profile anytime soon, I am certainly up for the task in the future.

Deconstructing Getting Out

In the past I have written about how we all have our place and to play to your strengths and in many cases that approach to things still pertains. The scenario I was in was not in my mind a great risk. Granted if I was goofing around I could have easily chopped off a digit or 2. But going in with a base level expectation, doing something I had never done before and doing it well, adjusted me not just for that day, but a little on what lies in the days ahead. And perhaps it can for you as well.

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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