Once upon a time a daughter complained to her father that her life was miserable and that she didn’t know how she was going to make it. She was tired of fighting and struggling all the time. It seemed just as one problem was solved, another one soon followed. Her father, a chef, took her to the kitchen. He filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire.
Once the three pots began to boil, he placed potatoes in one pot, eggs in the second pot and ground coffee beans in the third pot. He then let them sit and boil, without saying a word to his daughter. The daughter, moaned and impatiently waited, wondering what he was doing. After twenty minutes he turned off the burners. He took the potatoes out of the pot and placed them in a bowl. He pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. He then ladled the coffee out and placed it in a cup.
Turning to her, he asked. “Daughter, what do you see?” “Potatoes, eggs and coffee,” she hastily replied.
“Look closer”, he said, “and touch the potatoes.” She did and noted that they were soft.
He then asked her to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg.
Finally, he asked her to sip the coffee. Its rich aroma brought a smile to her face.
“Father, what does this mean?” she asked.
He then explained that the potatoes, the eggs and coffee beans had each faced the same adversity-the boiling water. However, each one reacted differently. The potato went in strong, hard and unrelenting, but in boiling water, it became soft and weak. The egg was fragile, with the thin outer shell protecting its liquid interior until it was put in the boiling water. Then the inside of the egg became hard. However, the ground coffee beans were unique. After they were exposed to the boiling water, they changed the water and created something new.
“Which one are you?” he asked his daughter. “When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a potato, an egg, or a coffee bean?”
In life, things happen around us, things happen to us, but the only thing that truly matters is how you choose to react to it and what you make out of it. Life is all about leaning, adopting and converting all the struggles that we experience into something positive.
Sometimes life can feel totally screwed up. No matter how hard we try, we keep running into dead ends or banging our head against a wall or failing to achieve or do the things we want to do.
We have great plans, amazing ideas — but we just can’t seem to launch them. Maybe we have constant money problems, difficulties with relationships, or emotions that drain our energy and enthusiasm. We look around and see other people succeeding and living exciting lives. It all seems like smooth sailing for them.
So we’re left wondering, “What do they know that I don’t? Why is it always such a struggle for me?”
It’s true, some of us come into the world with more — more opportunities, more money, better parents, more intelligence, an outgoing personality, or better looks. But we do have the capacity to make the best of what we’re born with. We have the capacity to change, to evolve, to succeed, and to be happy — if we figure out the root cause (or causes) of our self-defeating, limiting behaviors.
No one enjoys looking at themselves with honesty and revealing the dark corners of their lives. But within you lies the key to changing your life for the better. Self-awareness is always the first step toward personal evolution and empowerment. Knowledge is power. Knowledge calls for action. Start now !
