Shaving Yaks
Who knew that yaks needed shaving so often. Every time I think I’m done, I find myself right back there again, poised with clippers in hand next to a hairy yak.
Whilst moving to Tibet and becoming a yak farmer does have its appeal sometimes, this yak shaving is of the figurative kind.
According to Urban Dictionary, yak shaving is any seemingly pointless activity which is actually necessary to solve a problem which solves a problem which, several levels of recursion later, solves the real problem you’re working on.
I’ve been acutely aware of my tendency to shave those yaks after I first discovered the concept in a Seth Godin blog post. The concept strongly resonates as I reflect on how often I hear myself saying “well once I do that, then I can do that, and then that, and then I’ll get to the important thing on my list”.
In these moments, I can reason with myself that this is simply a story I’m telling myself. I step away from the yak and get on with the real task at hand. Sometimes discerning the genuine need to step through a sequence of tasks to get something done can be difficult. [It can almost be a yak shaving of its own].
It has been an emotionally draining month with a loss in my family, and the uncertainty in the world around us, resulting in less sleep, more stress and self-care taking a back seat. I think…
