I’m sure you’ve heard countless times everywhere, from motivational videos on YouTube to interviews with sports stars that thinking positively makes a world of difference. But people often confuse positivity with wishful thinking or blind optimism. Let me illustrate what positivity is with a story.
There were once two pots owned by a humble fisherman who lived by a river. One of the pots was broken but the fisherman was too poor to replace it with a new one. So every morning he’d carry both the pots, slung from a horizontal bar across his shoulders, to the river, fill them up and walk back to his hut. The broken pot would leak water all the way from the river to the hut.
One day, a friend visiting the fisherman saw the broken pot and asked him whether the broken pot doesn’t bother him and whether it doesn’t depress him that he can’t replace it. At this, the fisherman broke into a smile and said, “Come, let me show you something.” He took his friend out into the path from his hut to the river, and said to him, “Look on both sides of the path. What do you see?”
The friend said, “I see plants.”
“How do you think those plants, which are thriving, were watered every day?”
The friend got it in an instant, and said, “Wow, now I get it! Now I get why you are always happy, content and successful in your own way!”
Since the broken pot leaked water, it had watered all the plants every time the fisherman carried it from the river to the hut, without him having to do it separately!
This is true positivity: seeing the opportunity in a problem; a solution in a challenge. It’s not about denying the truth or escaping from a reality, or even running away from a problem. It’s about embracing every situation to the fullest and seeing what sliver of benefit, progress or profit can be taken from it. Then life becomes a raging success!
Have a positive month!
