Sand Castles

Just before sunset at low tide, the flats at Skaket Beach seemed to stretch all the way to the horizon and the sand and sky enfolded me in a soothing blanket of light.

The young parents and their sand-covered toddlers, the older couples in lawn chairs, the other solitary walkers like me were swaddled in a lavender hue in surroundings so spacious and calm that we moved slowly and kept our voices low to savor it.

In light like that you see things differently and as I ambled up the beach from the water’s edge I began to look at the day’s collection of sand castles that dotted the hard packed sand with new eyes.

Some were walled kingdoms with roads and moats, others were laid out geometrically with structures meticulously shaped using round or square molds, one featured a sea grass tower and another a beach pebble walkway. But the majority were spontaneous creations, shaped with no plan by tiny fingers for the pure delight of playing in wet sand, or by the bigger hands of adults who remembered how much fun it could be to make something for no other reason than the pleasure you get from doing it.

All would be flattened by the incoming tide, which started me wondering—which of the two types of castle-builders, the one who worked at constructing a masterpiece, or the one who had little interest in the final product, had a better day at the beach?

When we get excited about the process of changing ourselves, we begin to think less about seeking the applause and recognition of others and more about doing what we do for its own sake, with the lighthearted eagerness of a kid on the beach with a pail and shovel.

For a goal-oriented person like me, it was a useful question, but given what I’ve learned in my professional and personal life about the value of focusing on the process rather than the outcome and living as fully as possible in the moment, I decided it was the makers of unexceptional castles.

Sand castles aren’t the only things that don’t last—it’s just that we build them knowing they won’t.

What if we brought that same awareness to other things, like our work life? What if before we went into the office each day we thought about how quickly our roles could be washed out to sea? How might that highlight what is important for us to learn while we are still there? Would we then find new value in connecting with co-workers on a deeper level?

Most people are quick to agree that long-term security in a job is rare, but I’m not sure they really see just how much their work is influenced by currents and tides they have no control over and act accordingly.

Thoreau observed, “If you have built castles in the air [or sand, for that matter], your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.”

The rock solid foundation of a sustaining and rewarding work life is your own development. You grow by focusing on how you do every task and assignment, how you handle gossip and office politics, how you engage with the people you see everyday and those you select to build relationships with to support and nourish your ongoing progress.

When we get excited about the process of changing ourselves, we begin to think less about seeking the applause and recognition of others and more about doing what we do for its own sake, with the lighthearted eagerness of a kid on the beach with a pail and shovel.

Our own vision for what we want to build takes shape dribble-by-dribble, incident by incident, choice by choice as we construct a castle that is uniquely ours, accepting as we do that it is not permanent but will always be a work in progress.