The house with golden windows

A child was admiring the golden windows of a house on the opposite hill. They sparkled and seemed almost alive. He was attracted by the magic of the sight and begged his father to take him to find out the secret of that house.

One beautiful morning, the father took his child by the hand and they crossed the valley. When they reached the magical house, the windows were quite ordinary. The child was disappointed. “I really wanted to come here! It looked so special over here!” His father took him by the shoulders and looked deep into his eyes.

“My boy, this house, like lots of things, looks very attractive to us when we see it from a long way off. If you look closer you will see that you already have amazing things on your own doorstep. -Look!” and he turned his son towards their own house on the other side of the valley.

The child saw that it had golden windows.

What about you? Do you need to try out the extraordinary to realise that you are already experiencing magic times?

Proud to be different

Didier Arnoult is a specialist in hotel marketing. In his newsletter, he asks this interesting question, “Do we like to go to places that are like the ones we have already visited in other locations?”

Do we want to have the same hotel experience whether we are in Stuttgart, Prague or Istanbul? To see the same signs in all the shopping centres?

What is true for a hotel and a shopping centre is also true for businesses and people looking for a job.

Do you have a gap in your CV because you spent 2 years in Bali? That’s not a problem, it’s just a difference. Make the most of it by telling the full story: two years of total immersion in another culture that has enabled me to get rid of prejudices, learn a language and improve my ability to adapt.

What about you? What is your difference and how can you make the most of it?

PhD

Once upon a time, I used to dream of getting my high school diploma. Later, I was envious of people who had been to university. More recently, I wished I had a PhD.

But in the end, I realised I had fashioned my own qualifications over all these years!

I have a master’s in domestic management. An advanced certificate in administration. A qualification in green spaces. A diploma in family care. A master’s in organisation and logistics. A special commendation for writing little words of wisdom…. among so many other things.

Now, at the age of 52, I consider that I have my PhD in “applied life”.

What about you? What are the qualifications you have created for yourself?

The people around you

You can’t change the people around you…. but you can change the people around you!

In fact, I’ve stopped trying to change anything at all. I no longer want to rescue everybody, or even worse, teach them lessons. After all, everybody is a free agent.

However, I can change the people who are around me! That is braver and often more painful than trying to get somebody to be different from what they really are.

By changing the people you spend time with, you are making choices that are yours alone and allowing the other person to exercise their own free will.

What about you? Are you going to carry on trying to change people or are you already changing people?

A slice of bread

However thinly you cut your slice of bread, it will always have two sides.

We can’t understand the meaning of night if we don’t know day, or black without white, good without bad, kindness without nastiness or happiness without sadness.

Our slices of bread always have two sides.

How could I say for sure that I’m happy if I’ve never been sad? Or on edge, if I’ve never been at peace? Focused if I’ve never been distracted?

To pursue the bread analogy: if we never try the crust, we might only know the soft part. That would be a rather bland, even dull experience. It would be comfortable but would lack taste.

Instead of complaining about the imposed confinement, we could appreciate our neatly clean and tidy cupboards.

What about you? Do you really want to stick with the soft part, or are you willing to broaden your horizons?