Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Monkey & Boy - a story of Passion and Foolishness !

I have been targeted with sarcasm for being more practical and feeling and very less reactive from near and dear ones.  But most of the time I haven't lose my calmness and accepted criticism with smile on my face. 

Just wanted to point out difference between "being Passionate" and "being Foolish" with medium of two stories. I have read this two stories somewhere and both are contradictory from first look but then it gives more meaning if someone read it carefully. 

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There was  a boy ...belonging to typical middle class family where people around him were more concerned about basic needs than thinking about luxury. One day he has been asked by his school teacher to write an essay on "Dream". Boy didn't hesitate for a minute and wrote few pages of essay describing each and every little thing about his dream. His dream was to owning a farm house with all his favorite trees .... little river flowing by side....and a stable of horses. He wrote everything he wanted with minor details.  Teacher read it.....most of the people in the class has wrote about being "Teacher","Engineer","Doctor"...or few genius also wanted to be "Postman". With typical mindset of teacher of small school....she asked the boy to write something like everyone else did...or I will give you "F" grade.  The boy replied that ...I don't mind having the "F" grade but I don't wanna be anything like that so let me keep my dream....you keep your grade. Boy is grown up right now and owning everything he has written in that paper and have that school paper is framed on the wall.

Moral : Think about what exactly you want to achieve......otherwise you will get whatever little you are thinking....

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But wait....that's not end.  Sticking to a dream by being passionate about it made him successful. But that doesn't help always. Sometimes we need to leave something what we are passionate about to survive.

Have a look at this one more story...

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There was a monkey.....leaving near small town. Once a monkey....roaming around found a pile of nuts inside a pot.... just like a typical POT...it had an opening at the top. The monkey slid in his hand and grabbed the nuts. Now his hand had become a fist. The monkey tried to get his hand out; the opening was big enough for the hand to slide in, but too small for the fist to come out. The monkey had a choice, either to let go of the nuts and be free, or hang onto the nuts and keep trying to get free. He chose the latter. For the monkey, the nuts held the same significance as the ranch dreams held for the boy. Unfortunately, the box had been intentionally placed there by some smart monkey-hunters who came and caught the monkey.

Moral : Curtail the calling of your heart. If we keep going nuts about something, we will never be all that we can be!

Similar stories, opposing morals. Why? Because we searched for the morals at a wrong place. You see, the lesson here was not of the heart, but of the head. While both the monkey and the boy held on to their nutty dreams, there was a fundamental difference in their pursuits: The monkey had little to gain and everything to lose, while the poor boy had everything to gain and little to lose!

Often, our professional or personal triumphs don’t lie in the dreams of the heart, but the logic of the head. On our ability to distinguish between an opportunity and a threat, between a permanent and a temporary gain, between reality and fantasy. And above all, in our knack to pinpoint the lessons surrounding the daily stories of our lives…