I don’t know about you, but a practical story can put things in perspective.
Like the one I heard about a group of highly established alumni who got together to visit their old university professor.
Their conversation soon turned into criticisms, complaints, and dissatisfaction about their stressful lives and careers.
The professor listened patiently. After they were done, without saying a word, he returned to his kitchen with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups — porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal — some plain-looking ones, and some expensive ones.
The professor told his former students to help themselves to coffee.
After all the students had a cup of coffee, he said,
“Did you notice that all the nice-looking cups are taken, and only the plain, inexpensive ones are left behind?”
The professor continued,
“While it is normal for everyone to want the best for themselves, that is the source of the problems and stress in their lives.
The cup itself adds no quality to the coffee. And in most cases, it’s more expensive and hides what we are drinking.”
He went on,
“All of you wanted coffee, not the cup — but you consciously went for the good-looking, expensive cups and then began eyeing each other’s cups.”
He paused, then added:
“Let’s consider that life is coffee. And your careers, homes, vehicles, investment accounts, and stuff are the cups.
Putting it into perspective, the type of cups we have does not define nor change the quality of our lives.”
As the professor explained to his former students, sometimes we fail to enjoy the coffee by concentrating only on the cups we have — or don’t have.
It’s not a requirement that everything must be perfect to enjoy life.
It means you’ve decided to see beyond the imperfections and find peace within yourself.
And that peace lies within us — not in our careers, homes, vehicles, investment accounts, etc.
So, let’s enjoy the coffee!
And let the other stuff take care of itself.
Think about that, and we’ll do it again soon!
