The milkmaid was walking down the street. She was headed to town with a pail of milk on her head to sell to someone in the market. While she was walking the milkmaid started thinking about all the things she could buy with her milk money. She decided to buy some chicken that would lay lots of eggs. With the eggs, she could sell them for even more money in the market. Once, she had all the money, she could then buy some new clothes. All the boys would see her and want to talk to her. She then thought, the girls would be jealous as she walked by and tossed her hair. Mimicking the motion she would do as she passed the girls, the milk tumbled off her head. The milkmaid no longer had any milk to sell to anyone in the market and could not buy the chickens or the new clothes. She ran home crying to her mother who told her it was not wise to count her chickens before they hatched.

Sometimes, we get so lost in our thoughts of all the things we want to buy when we receive a paycheck or even a tiny bit of money. The money then is swallowed by bills, unexpected items, or never comes. Rather than focusing on what you plan to buy, you should be focusing on how to earn the money and placing all your effort in the work. When we focus on the work and do it well, the money will eventually come. Should it not come, we are not as upset as we would have been had we already had it set in our mind everything we were going to buy. Purchases should be planned but only with the money that we currently have and not money we plan to have in the future. 

This post is from a contributing writer to CEO Blog Nation.

Image courtesy of Ambro / FreeDigitalPhotos.net