The Coffee Bean

HOW we react to our circumstances makes all the difference. Whether we are defeated by them, hardened by them, or whether we transform them depends on our mindset.

Jon Gordon and Damon West present the story of The Coffee Bean. The story follows high school student Abe who is weighed down by worries about football, criticisms, negativity, and his parent’s relationship issues. His science teacher Mr. Jackson helps him to shift his perspective through a metaphor on life.

Life is often like a pot of very hot water. It can be a harsh, stressful, and difficult place. You’ll find yourself in environments and facing conditions that test who you really are, and can change, weaken, or harden you if you let them.

Mr. Jackson asks him to consider what happen to a carrot, an egg, and a coffee bean when they are boiled. The carrot is weakened. The egg becomes hardened. But the coffee bean transforms its environment—the boiling water. Mr. Jackson tells him:

No matter how hard things get, or how hopeless things look, don’t give up. Realize that we don’t create our world from the outside in. We create it and transform it from the inside out.

If you think you are a carrot, you will believe the power and forces outside you are more powerful than who you are on the inside, and you will become weaker.

If you think you are an egg, you will believe the negativity in thew world has the power to harden your heart and cause you to become negative like the world.

But is you know you are a coffee bean, you will not allow the outside world to impact you. You will know the power inside you is greater than the forces outside you, and with this insight, you will transform your environment and the world from the inside out.

This is a powerful lesson for life. And as the story continues, we also learn that it is easy to forget when the pressures and circumstances around us become great. Fear and worry are powerful emotions that easily sidetrack our best intentions and critical thinking skills. In these times, remember, we can be the coffee bean.

The story is well told and worth getting into the hands of people you know and care about.

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Posted by Michael McKinney at 09:54 AM
Permalink | Comments (0) | This post is about Personal Development