Most of us don’t think of picking apples for a living. Yet, when we need the money, we might. After all, it’s outside work, and you don’t have to bend down — it’s light work.
I speak to plenty of coaches who feel stuck. Stuck in the sense that they are not doing the work they want, only the work they feel they need to do. After all, sticking out doesn’t pay as well as fitting in. Right?
As a student, I worked a few fruit-picking seasons, both in the UK and abroad; it served a purpose. The strategy was to get enough money to get to the next place, and if you talk to seasoned fruit pickers, it’s much the same: picking apples plugs a gap.
It’s not so much the hourly rate — that’s not great; it’s the opportunity cost. Like all strategies, it’s worth asking if what we are doing is getting in the way or helping us on our way — the cost of the opportunity.
It could be worse; you could feel stuck; go pick some apples if it helps you move on.