| Be kind, first and foremost, to yourself… and spend time regularly to examine the choices you are making day-to-day, to ensure they're consistent with the trajectory you've set for yourself.
This is not to say that your life choices will be clear, or that life won't throw you some curve balls. We all get our share of difficulties. But a strongly rooted personal vision will make it much easier to keep things in perspective, and to endure life's inevitable temptations – and trials – with patience. A classic Eastern story illustrates just this kind of personal strength. It tells us that:
A farmer is out working in his fields when he finds a beautiful stallion which follows him back to the barn. A neighbor sees him with the animal and congratulates him on his luck in finding it.
"Lucky?" says the farmer, "Maybe. We'll see."
The next day, the farmer's son is riding the horse instead of working, is thrown from the horse, and breaks his leg. The same neighbor offers his condolences. "You were right. That horse was bad luck!"
"Maybe. We'll see."
A few days later, an army squad comes riding up to the farm. They'd been out on combing the countryside for conscripts when one of them was thrown from his horse, which then ran off. The old farmer led the men to their lost horse. The captain looked around at the farm, then at the old man with his bent back and said, "Surely you don't work this place all by yourself, do you? If there are any able-bodied men around here, you better tell me! Maybe the trip out here wasn't a waste of time after all!"
"It's just my son and myself. And he has a broken leg." The captain demanded to see for himself, but when he saw that the young man did indeed have a broken leg, and was in no shape to ride, they left him there on the farm, rather than taking him off to be cannon-fodder in the Emperor's wars.
Again, the neighbor marveled at his friend's luck, but the old man just shook his head and said, "Maybe. We'll see."
When you know who you are and have a plan for where you're going, life's inevitable ups and downs become lessons, rather than impediments, to reaching your goals.
Extracted from: http://www.niagara.edu/news2/news/Commencement%2000/GauntAddress.htm |
