Had A Bad Day? How Do You Know?

Once upon a time and long, long before Life Coaching had been invented in a land far, far away a farmer had small plot of land. If he worked day and night 7 days a week with his son there would be just enough food for him and his family to exist on.

One day his only horse ran away. A neighbor heard the terrible news and went round to comfort him.

‘I have heard about your horse running away and that is terrible news’

‘No it isn’t?’ said the farmer.

‘What do you mean said his friend I know how hard you work with that horse, that without it you cannot feed your family, that is just terrible’

‘Ah’ said the farmer ‘but what you don’t know is that the horse came back, and not only did it come back, but it brought two other horse with it, I’ve got 3 of them now!’

‘Wow’ said the neighbor ‘that is fantastic news.’

‘No it isn’t’ said the farmer’

‘What do you mean’ said the neighbor ‘you have 3 horses it will be easier you will have more food, more spare time, I don’t get it’

‘Well what you don’t know’ said the farmer ‘is that my son tried to tame one of the horses, got thrown off and broke both his legs, now he cannot help me’

‘Oh my goodness, that’s terrible news’ said the neighbor’

‘ No it isn’t’ said the farmer’

‘Wait a minute’ said the neighbor ‘how can that not be a catastrophe to you and your family, you need your son’

‘Because today the militia came by and recruited all the able bodied men and skipped my son because of his broken legs.’ said the farmer’

‘That’s fantastic news said the neighbor’

‘No it isn’t said the farmer’

That story goes on ad infinitum as you can imagine.

What it demonstrates is perspective. Seldom do we know when an event happens what will be the long-term implications.

A job firing could lead to a better job or finally working for yourself, a long line in the post office when you are late for an appointment may mean you speak to somebody that alters the course of your life for the better, a traffic jam on the Interstate may cause you to tune into a radio show that you wouldn’t normally listen to resulting in some information that leads to a breakthrough in your life, a bankruptcy may cause you to reassess and start again with experience that you couldn’t buy with any amount of money and so on.

Of course you could make yourself miserable by dwelling on a negative that may indeed be a huge positive, but I’m sure you are far too sensible to do that.

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1 Comment So Far.

1. Pingback by Appreciate EVERY Moment NOT Just the Good Ones | Heal Pain Naturally on 4 October 2008:

   [...] Stupid Questions? (There are no Stupid Questions)” and found a very relevant chapter “Had a Bad Day — How do you KNOW?” Tim is also a life coach and I highly recommend checking out more on his blog, “A [...]

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