When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a potato, an egg, or a coffee bean. I choose to be a coffee bean. Find out Why...
This morning I was doing some reflection on the events that happened to my life in 2015 while I was enjoying a cup of traditional Vietnamese Coffee at my home.
Year 2015 have been a very eventful year for me travelling to many countries in South East Asia conducting personal and leadership development trainings to develop leaders. My passion have always been to inspire and help individuals to succeed through an on-going personal and leadership development.
While I was travelling to the different countries meeting peoples from different races and cultures, I found out that many peoples are not prepared to face challenges and adversity in life. They want a life that is easy with less problems and challenges.
I want to share this beautiful story to inspire you to be prepared on how you should respond when you are faced with challenges in life and when adversity knocks on your door. It is a choice on how you respond. Choose to “Stay POSitive in all Circumstances."
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 and totally wonderful.
“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?”
The moral of the story is that in life, things happen around us, things happen to us, but the only thing that truly matters is how you choose to respond to them and what you make out of it. Life is all about learning, adopting and converting all the challenges that we experienced into something positives.
Jim Rohn once said, “Don't wish it was easier wish you were better. Don't wish for less problems wish for more skills. Don't wish for less challenge wish for more wisdom”
Enjoy the next 11 Days before the end of Year 2015. Expect great things to happens to you and your family in Year 2016!
