1

“Don’t go around saying the world owes you a living; the world owes you nothing; it was here first.” ~ Mark Twain

2

“You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do.” ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

3

“Life is a ticket to the greatest show on earth.” ~ Martin H. Fischer

4

“You must take personal responsibility. You cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, or the wind, but you can change yourself.” ~ Jim Rohn

5

Once upon a time, a young woman complained to her father that her life was miserable and that she didn’t know how she was going to make a go of anything. She was tired of fighting and struggling all the time. It seemed that just as one problem was solved, another one came along. Her father took her to the kitchen and filled three pots with water and placed each one on the gas hob. He then placed potatoes in one pot, eggs in the second pot and coffee beans in the third pot. The daughter wondered what he was trying to prove. 

After fifteen minutes, he took the potatoes out of the pot and placed them in a bowl. He took the eggs out and placed them in another bowl and then poured the coffee into a mug. 

The father then asked, “Daughter, what do you see?”

“I see potatoes, eggs, and coffee,” she replied.

“Look closer and touch the potatoes.” She did and noticed that they were soft. He then asked her to take an egg and break it. She did and observed the hard-boiled egg inside.

Finally, he asked her to sip the coffee. “But father, what does this mean? I don’t understand.”

He then explained that the potatoes, the eggs and the coffee beans had each faced the same adversity, by being placed into the boiling water. However, each one had reacted differently. The potatoes went in strong and hard, but in boiling water had became soft and weak. The egg had been fragile but was now hard., The ground coffee beans, however, were unique. After they were exposed to the boiling water, they changed the water and created something new.

“Which are you?” he asked his daughter.

When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a potato, an egg, or a coffee bean?” In life, things happen around us and things happen to us, but the only thing that truly matters is what occurs within us. It is up to us how we react in the face of adversity. Do we become soft and weak like the potato, hard like the egg or do we seek our uniqueness which is in every single one of us and create something new?