Do you think life is complicated…? Know, how to make it simple.
Life is simple, but we insist on making it complicated – Confucius.
Is not Confucius right my friend? I can say its timeless insight and it will be more relevant for future generations as well. I must say, many of us not understood the life the way it should be led or experience. Because we don’t want it to be simple, normal instead we always wanted to be special, superior to others. This ego trip pushed us into all the complexities that exist around us. No other creature in this world is not running after a weird idea of becoming special. They are just how they are born and leading a happy and contended life according to their inhabitant. In fact, they know how to make “Life simple” and human beings are experts “How to make it complicated…?”
Here is an interesting story between a chef and a confused daughter around the meaning of life which would help us to understand to deal with the adversities in life as to make it simple.
Once a daughter complained to her father about her life and how things were so complicated for her. She did not have an idea how she was going to make it and wanted to give up. She was tired of struggling. It seemed that as soon as one problem was solved, another was standing next to her.
Her father, a Cook chef, took her to the kitchen, and he filled three pots with water and placed each on fire. Soon the pots came to a boil. In one of the pots he placed carrots, in the second pot he placed eggs, and in the last, he placed ground coffee beans. He let her daughter sit and boil, without saying a word.
The daughter sucked her teeth and impatiently start waiting, wondering what her father was doing. In about twenty minutes he turned off the burners. He takes the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. He pulled the eggs out and placed them a bowl.
Then he finally takes the coffee out and placed it in a bowl. Turning to her daughter he asked. “What do you see?” “Carrots, eggs, and coffee,” she replied, and she came closer and feel the carrots. 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. She smiled as she tasted its rich aroma.
She said, what’s the point?????
Her father explained that each of the items had faced the same adversity – i.e boiling water – but each reacted differently.
The carrot went in strong and hard. But 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?” he asked his daughter innocently. “When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Do you become weak, like a carrot, hard on them? inside, like an egg, or do you change the circumstances, like the coffee beans?”
Friends, moral of the story is “There are different ways to react. Don’t be weak or suppress things – change circumstances from within”. So, life becomes simple when you react from within, let’s not make it complicated.
Here are a few things that you can put it to practice leading a simple yet elegant life.
- Be positive and become a part of a solution than a problem
- Turn the adversities into opportunities
- Know that you are stronger than life’s challenges
- Be optimistic and
- Be grateful for what you have rather regretting on what you don’t have
Related: How do I Become a Problem Solver
