Some food for thought

This might get a little long, but I thought it was worth sharing. This was in my latest Tastefully Simple Gazette...our founder and CEO shared it in her letter to all the consultants.


I heard a story about a medical school professor who stood before his class holding a glass of water. He asked them to guess how much it weighed. Their estimate was about 8 oz. "What will happen to me if I hold this glass like this for one minute?"

The students responded that nothing much was likely to happen.

Then he said, "What if I hold it for an hour?"

"Your arm would start to get tired and ache," his class said.

"And if I held the glass for a whole day?"

The students responded, "Your arm could go numb, you might experience severe muscle stress and even paralysis."

"But during all this, did the weight of the glass change?" the professor asked. The class agreed that the water would weigh the same 8 oz. at the beginning of the experiment as it did at the end.

"And yet it feels so much heaver the longer I hold it," the teacher noted. Then he asked, "What should I do to relieve my discomfort?" The class responded unanimously. "Put down the glass!"

"Exactly!" said the professor, adding, "Life's struggles are sometimes like this. Hold them for a few minutes in your heart and you'll be fine. In fact, you might even gain a little strength by exercising your problem-solving muscles. But when you hang on to your probelms for a long time, you'll begin to feel an ache. Eventually holding on to those heavy burdens can even paralyze you so you won't be able to move forward. That's why it's important to think of the challenges or problems in your life....but even more important to put them down. That way you'll be free and strong enough to tackle new challenges and opportunities."