A Beautiful Lesson In Life and Adversity

A carrot, an egg, and a cup of coffee. You will never look at a cup of coffee the same way again.

A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up, She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as one problem was solved, a new one arose.

Her mother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to boil. In the first she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs, and in the last she placed ground coffee beans. She let them sit and boil; without saying a word...
In about twenty minutes she turned off the burners. She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl. Turning to her daughter, she asked, ' Tell me what you see.'

'Carrots, eggs, and coffee,' she replied.

Her mother brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they were soft. The mother then asked the daughter to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard boiled egg.

Finally, the mother asked the daughter to sip the coffee. The daughter smiled as she tasted its rich aroma. The daughter then asked, 'What does it mean, mother?'

Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity: boiling water. Each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong, hard, and unrelenting. However, after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak. The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior, but after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened. The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling water, they had changed the water.

'Which are you?' she asked her daughter. 'When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?

Think of this: Which am I? Am I the carrot that seems strong, but with pain and adversity do I wilt and become soft and lose my strength?

Am I the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat? Did I have a fluid spirit, but after a death, a breakup, a financial hardship or some other trial, have I become hardened and stiff? Does my shell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and hardened heart?

Or am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually changes the hot water, the very circumstance that brings the pain. When the water gets hot, it releases the fragrance and flavor..

If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get better and change the situation around you. When the hour is the darkest and trials are their greatest do you elevate yourself to another level? How do you handle adversity? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?

If you have enough happiness to make you sweet, enough trials to make you strong, enough sorrow to keep you human and enough hope to make you happy. The happiest of people don't necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the most of everything that comes along their way. The brightest future will always be based on a forgotten past; you can't go forward in life until you let go of your past failures and heartaches.

When you were born, you were crying and everyone around you was smiling. Live your life so at the end, you're the one who is smiling and everyone around you is crying.

Brighten someone's life today on purpose.

May we all be COFFEE!!!!!!

To your unstoppable success...

Are You Following Your Destiny?

While masterminding with one of my personal mentors last night, I was really moved to share a few of my thoughts with you. He was talking about Living in Your Destiny and why so many people choose not to, but choose to simply follow instead of being a leader of their own lives.

When I think of following my Destiny, I think about Playing Big. I grew up in an environment where you were not expected or encouraged to out-perform your parents or your siblings. There was no expectation of us, me and my 5 brothers and sisters, to do anything great or to accomplish anything unique or different. The expectation was to be seen and never heard, to be a follower and never a leader. If we stepped forward at any point and demonstrated our uniqueness, it was considered a direct violation of the family "rules".

Fortunately for me, that model never fit me very well. From early on in life I was considered a dreamer, a rebel, different and definitely not someone who fit in very well. I was always up to something. I wanted to have horses and figured out a way to do it. I wanted to be a dancer and figured out a way to do it. I wanted to write, travel and experience greatness. And yes, I did exactly those things.

It never occured to me that what I was doing was Following My Destiny. What I thought I was doing was Living My Life. But now in hindsight, I find that my Destiny called at every step and every turn of my life. I have seen and experienced things in my life that most others only dream of.

I even managed to marry my soulmate and after 23 years of marriage and 29 years together, I had to say goodbye to him. But he will never be gone because he is such a part of the Destiny I have lived up to this point.

My point here is simple. Sometimes we live our destiny and never realize it. It is easy, flowing and part of our expectation in life. We are constantly moving forward, growing and becoming more of who we truly are.

But other times, we struggle to Find our Destiny. Sometimes we get side-tracked or distracted by adversity. Adversity is the thing that drains us of our dreams, our energy, our focus and our Destiny.

I know this to be true because I have experienced great adversities in my life. What I have learned is we have only two options when adversity shows it's ugly head:

1) We can shrink ourselves to people who live in fear and allow fear to make our decisions and drive our lives.

OR

2) We can Play Big, plow right through them and become the people our Destiny is calling us to be.

Dealing with adversity and only allowing it to be a "bump in the road" is the only way to live your destiny. Life should be easy flowing but it should NEVER be comfortable. When life is comfortable, you risk being stuck and not finding your true self or your true destiny.

I encourage you to play big. To realize that life is about taking chances. Sometimes we fall on our faces and other times we soar. But, we will never soar if we do not take the chance to.

To your unstoppable success...