Do you feel like your life has lost every flavor? Like time is passing by, and you are not seizing it? It might be that you are focusing on the wrong stuff! In today’s post, I am going to share with you an analogy about the story of your life, i.e. life is like a cup of coffee.
By the end of the story, you’ll have changed the way you look at your life and you’ll be aware of how to enjoy your life to the fullest.
A CUP OF COFFEE
A group of alumni, established in their careers, gathered to visit their old University Professor.
They shared with each other how they had moved ahead in life.
Some had climbed the Corporate ladder till they got to the top.
Someone had built a multi-millionaire business; while others were teaching in the most prestigious Universities in the world.
Everyone was very successful and seemed happy.
But, before long, the conversation turned into complaints about how stressful their work and life were.
The Professor, at that point, left the room and went to the kitchen.
“Oh my God, we must have bored him”, one of the alumni said out loud.
But, the Professor was soon back.
He was carrying a tray with a large pot of coffee and a variety of cups - porcelain, plastic, crystal, glass, some simple and cheap, whereas some unique and very expensive.
“Please, help yourselves!”, the Professor said.
When all of them had a cup of coffee in their hand the Professor said:
“See how all the nice-looking expensive cups were taken, whereas the simple and cheap ones are still on the tray.
Although it's normal to aim for the best, this can also become the source of your problems and stress”.
The alumni looked confused.
“What’s the connection with having a coffee in a chosen cup with the stress and problems in life”, some were thinking to themselves.
The Professor then went on: “The cup itself doesn't make the coffee better. In most instances, it is only more expensive, and it distracts our attention.
What all of you wanted was a nice coffee, not a beautiful and expensive cup.
Yet, when you saw a wide choice, you took the one you considered the BEST and then, you began to examine which cup everyone else had chosen to make sure yours was good enough”.
The puzzled alumni looked at the cups in their hands and raised their eyes to the professor.
The Professor then went on: “Life is like a cup of coffee! The careers, the money, and the social standing are the cups. Only tools to hold and contain the real treasure, i.e. your life”.
The alumni kept their eyes on the Professor, who took a simple and inconspicuous cup from the tray.
He then went on: “The cup in our hands doesn't determine, or change the taste and quality of our life.
Yet, way too often by focusing only on the cup we fail to enjoy the taste of the coffee”.
The professor then took a sip, smiled, and concluded: “Seize the coffee, don’t let the cups have the upper hand and distract you from enjoying your coffee.
FINAL THOUGHTS
All of us, some more than others, end up focusing too much on the cups - the career, the money, the social standing, the appearance - to keep up with the Joneses, fail to enjoy the coffee, i.e. life, and get stressed.
Even if a nice-looking cup may help make the experience of drinking coffee more pleasant, it’s the coffee that makes the difference.
The same applies to your life.
You might achieve anything everyone would ever wish for, but, if you miss enjoying your life, and you suffer from stress, what’s the point?
“The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience”. - Eleanor Roosevelt
Don’t get me wrong; I am not saying that aiming to make more money, climb the Corporate ladder, or trying to achieve whatever goal you may have is not worth it.
What I invite you to do, though, is to remember and enjoy your coffee, i.e. your life here and now - carpe diem!
“I don’t live in either my past or my future. I’m interested only in the present. If you can concentrate always on the present, you’ll be a happy man. Life will be a party for you, a grand festival, because life is the moment we’re living now”. - Paulo Coelho
Don’t be so obsessed with achieving your goals, that you forget to live today and you burn out.
The secret is finding the right balance in everything you do.
Remember: Life is like a cup of coffee - savor the coffee not the cup!
Make the most of everything, spend more time doing what you love, help someone in need; nourish your relationships; travel the world, collect as many experiences and memories as possible because at the end of the day, as well as at the end of your life, this is what matters the most.
Has this post opened your eyes and inspired you? If so, why not share it with others and help them start seizing their lives too?!
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