Stop being a glass and be a lake to dissolve worries

Once an unhappy young man came to an old master and told him he had a very sad life and asked for a solution. The old master instructed the unhappy young man to put a handful of salt in a glass of water and drink it.

“How does it taste?” The master asked. “Terrible,” spat the apprentice.

The master chuckled and then asked the young man to take another handful of salt and put it in the lake. The two walked in silence to the nearby lake and then the apprentice scattered his handful of salt into the lake.

The old man said, “Now drink from the lake.” As the water dripped down the young man’s chin, the master asked, “How does it taste?”

“Good!” remarked the apprentice.

“Do you taste the salt?” asked the master.

“No,” said the young man.

The master sat beside this troubled young man, took his hands, and said, “The pain of life is pure salt; no more, no less. The amount of pain in life remains the same, exactly the same. But the amount of ‘pain’ we taste depends on the container we put it into. So, when you are in pain, the only thing you can do is to enlarge your sense of things. Stop being a glass. Become a lake.”

1. What worries you masters you: If a problem can be solved, then you don’t need to worry about it; if a problem cannot be solved, then there is no point in worrying about it. The more you let your worries take over you, the more power they get to become your master.

2. The less you worry, the less complicated life becomes for you: As they say, worrying does not take tomorrow’s troubles but they for sure take away today’s peace. So, stop just worrying, start taking action on how you can solve your problems.

3. Stop worrying about what can go wrong, get thinking about what can go right: This has been said many times before. “Look at every problem as an opportunity” and there for sure is a merit in it. Opportunities come in the guise of problems, it’s only when you unlock it that you find them.

4. Sometimes, the easiest solution is for you to take a deep breathe: Life is too short to spend it regretting and worrying. Let your life have no regrets, just lessons and no worries, just acceptance. Take a deep breathe when things are not in your control; a new way or a new solution might just show up.

5. Worrying is like a rocking chair, it gives you something to do but takes you nowhere: What’s the point if it does not help you move forward? You might rather spend time planning to move ahead than just be stuck where you are. So grab your moment and take action.

Sri Bharatam is the founder of Kuza Biashara Limited, a capacity building organization coaching youth & SME owners across Africa.  He can be reached @Sbharatam or  [email protected]