So this past week there has been a little battle going on in my garden – between me and a swarm of wasps.
I have bird boxes dotted around my garden, and to me, the purpose of them is to encourage birds to use them to build their nests and raise their chicks. It’s purely selfish. I love watching the chicks develop and grow and eventually fledge. It’s a joy to me to watch them
I caught a fab video last spring of some of the little ones leaving their box for the first time – you can watch it here
I did not put them there for wasps to use as a safe place to build their nests!!
Anyway over the past few weeks I noticed that there seemed to be a lot of wasps in my garden, and the tell tale constant noise of buzzing that suggested a nest of unwanted creatures coming from around the fence.
Sure enough on closer inspection I could quite clearly see the unmistakable shape of a wasp nest inside one of the bird boxes.
Now normally I don’t like to kill any living thing. I appreciate that everything in nature has it’s purpose and firmly believe that it should be allowed to get on with it and do its job. With this in mind, I really didn’t want to go straight for the kill and destroy the nest.
My first thought was to block off access to the nest in the hope that the wasps would give up on it and go elsewhere. So I promptly sealed off, or so I thought, the access to the box with duct tape
I was wrong. The wasps did not give up, they found other ways into the nest, via every possible little gap around the box. They even tried eating the duct tape to get into the box to access the nest.
Eventually the nest box was completely covered in tape yet they still didnt give up!!
I have to confess. I was impressed with their tenacity and determination.
Now this left me feeling more than just a little bit guilty. All they were trying to do was to support and feed the young inside the nest, as is their purpose in life
After a couple of days I decided that trying to keep them out of the box wasn’t keeping my garden wasp free, which was what I wanted to achieve in the first place, so I caved in and took off all of the duct tape.
My thinking being that they would just go about their business and by the end of the summer they would be gone anyway
I admired their determination to finish what they had started too
However, they didn’t seem to reciprocate the respect
When I moved my office into the garden for a sunny afternoon, they didn’t seem to want to leave me alone to go about my business, and I found myself being constantly “buzzed” by them. Even though I was sitting away from the nest, quietly minding my own business.
I ran out of patience (to be honest – I’m not exactly renowned for being a patient soul at the best of times)
Any feelings of guilt I might have had for trying to stop them nesting in my garden evaporated, and it really did become a case of “It’s me or them” (dons warrior cape at this point)
The nest had to go!
Armed with a metre long length of bamboo cane and a thick pair of gardening gloves I attacked the nest through the whole in the front of the bird box
Surely with the nest all but destroyed they would give up – NOPE
Then it was off to my local DIY store to get some wasp nest powder
Now I knew this was going to cause havoc – the container gave me fair warning of the effect it would have
In the middle of summer, on a warm night, I was wrapped up in the thickest of winter coats, with hood up and tied tightly around my face, trousers tucked firmly into a thick pair of socks, and the strongest pair of gloves.
I was ready to do battle
I’ll spare you the gruesome details, but suffice to say there is no longer a wasp nest in my garden, and somehow I managed to get away without suffering a single sting
The moral of the story is not to boast about getting rid of the nest
In truth, I take no satisfaction in it at all. I know that everything in nature has its place, and for the most part should be allowed to get on with it
Rather, it is all about being determined
I feel a great deal of respect for those little wasps, who, no matter how I tried to thwart their efforts, just kept on going!!!
No amount of duct tape was going to stop them form achieving what they had set out to do.
No matter what I did, short of killing them, was going to stop them
Their mission was greater to them than any amount of trial and tribulation they might encounter along the way
On the other hand, my determination to deal with the situation also meant that I was prepared to do whatever it took to get rid of the unwanted visitors to my garden. Even looking ridiculously silly and risking being stung by my adversaries
So, my question for you is, how determined are you, do you give up at the first hurdle?
If I were to wrap some duct tape around your business, would you give up, or would you keep at, determined to make it work?
If your first attempt at solving the problem didn’t work would you find another way?
[bctt tweet=”How determined are you to make your coaching business work?”]
How determined are you to make your coaching business work?
How brave are you when you need to be, do you get stuck in and risk the pain, or do you give in and run away?
Be like the wasps, stay focused on your mission, and don’t let anything or anyone stop you 🙂
Karen x
It can be tough to keep going sometimes, especially if you don’t have a good support nrtwork around you.
The Coaches’ Zone Facebook Group is a fabulous community of Coaches, who cheer each other on, and keep each other going – come join us!
