Coffee Quote

"You know - these cups bring to mind a coffee quote I heard…" Mary´s aunt said. 

She poured coffee. There were four of them and there were four totally different cups on the table. Not that it mattered - they were all there to help her with her garden, so no wonder she would not put the fine china on the table. They grabbed their coffee cups. "What quote?" Mary asked.

"Well, maybe I should rather say it is a story," aunt said, "Here, take bisquits."

They did and while they munched she said: 

"I heard there was this wise teacher who took all his students for coffee. They were surprised that all the cups on the table were different. They all took a cup and started drinking their coffee, 

each looking at the cups of others. The teacher let them do that for a while and then said:

"I heard there was this wise teacher who took all his students for coffee. They were surprised that all the cups on the table were different. They all took a cup and started drinking their coffee, 
each looking at the cups of others. The teacher let them do that for a while and then said:

"Do you notice your behaviour? You all are looking at each other´s coffee cup and I can see some of you with the chipped ones are even envious of the finer cups of others. Is this not so?"

The students agreed, amused of their own behavior.

"You may have wondered why you all had different cups, but I put them here on purpose. You see - they represent life itself. Life is like that coffee - and the cups are like the physical circumstances of your life. You all got the same thing in your cups - coffee. And yet you cannot truly enjoy it in your envy of another´s cup. It´s just the same with life. You forget to enjoy your own life when you concentrate on envying the circumstances of someone else´s life.

So now, close your eyes, and taste your own coffee. Really taste it. And tell me - did it matter from which cup it came from?"

Aunt finished telling her short coffee story and they all sat in silence for a while, savouring their coffee. A sleepy fly buzzed past, a bird sang in the tree. And it really did not matter one bit from which coffee cup they drank. 

Did this coffee quote raise any thoughts?

I think one of the major reasons people are unhappy in their lives is that they compare their own accomplishments to those of others'. In the end you can really only compete with yourself. It is good to have role models - people who have excelled in something you are interested in - as long as they inspire you to try better. But if you let their achievements discourage yourself because you are not as good...

Well, most likely there will always be those who are better than you at any given skill. So it is pointless to get depressed because of that. 

Instead concentrate on your own development - did you do a thing better than before? Can you see your progress during the years? That is what you should concentrate on. Doing the best with the skills you have, and learning more to develop those skills. Use the example of others as an inspiration, be happy that they have achieved something great, because if they have, you know it is not impossible.

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