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Tag: choices

A coffee riddle

Which costs more?

Coffee #1

Before you reach the counter, a wide grin flashes at the sight of your arrival. You’re greeted, “Hello! How are you, sister?”  and asked if you’ll have your usual order — black coffee with sugar, no milk.
As your coffee is prepared, you settle in at the table overlooking the outdoor market. There are three additional chairs surrounding the table; sometimes you’re joined by others. Today you’ve brought a newspaper along, but your eyes dart from its pages to the women buying fresh vegetables and men catching up on local gossip.
A small porcelain cup is carried on a saucer and placed in front of you. The woman asks about your day, your family, your friends. When you’re ready to leave, a friendly “See you again soon!” accompanies your change.

Coffee #2

You wait in a line of patrons nervously checking cellphones and eagerly scanning a large billboard of beverage choices. At the front of the queue, the cashier grumbles for orders. “What can I get you?”
After you hand over payment, you step aside to wait in an additional line for your black coffee. Collecting your paper cup, you advance to a separate counter to retrieve sugar packets for your brew. Though you’d like to sit, all tables are full — some occupied by lone individuals — and you decide to leave, having hardly made eye contact or uttered more than a few words.

Which coffee would you pay more for?

Successful businesses offer an experience, a connection. They provide moments that allow the customer to step away from “life” just long enough to return changed (or inspired) in some way.
Note: The coffee described in the first scenario actually costs much, much less than the second; $0.20 USD compared to $1.78 USD. Write me if you’d like to learn more.

Two kinds of people

You’re feeling dissatisfied, unsettled. You want better than what life is presenting to you. You want to provide for yourself and your family. Maybe you’d describe yourself as unhappy.
No matter where I’ve gone in the world (or who I’ve worked with: students, prisoners, corporate executives, entrepreneurs, monks), I’ve seen two typical responses to this situation.
Option A — Action Paralysis
What does this mean? Ideas aren’t in short supply, but movement is. These individuals fail to take any steps forward. Excuses and fear restrict their progress and prevent momentum.
“I don’t have the skills I need.”
“I can’t find a job that pays well.”
“It’s too hard.”
“It’s always been done this way.”
“It’s impossible.”
“Somebody else will do it.”
“If only I could get x, things would be easier.” (x = more money, a different job, the right partner, a miracle, admission, acceptance)
Option B — The Creators
Concrete decisions are made and acted upon in order to build a better life — no matter what obstacle is in the way. These individuals are so committed to the taste of their dreams and the potential of the future that nothing can stop them. They just do.
The Nepali shopkeeper who wakes at 4:00am daily to buy vegetables from whole-sellers and farmers to resell at the local market. He sets up shop with his wife and negotiates with customers. After the market closes, he heads to the tourist section of town to sell the rest of his bounty to hotels at a higher price.
A family uproots from their village and rents a two-bedroom house in the city. They turn one bedroom into a hotel and sleep all seven family members in the other.
The mother who sends her daughter to a different country to study because tuition is more affordable.
The corporate worker who sets aside his exhaustion at the end of the day to finish his screen play.
There are stories like this all over the world. Stories of sacrifice and perseverance and commitment and character and strength of vision.
You get to choose: do you want your story to be peppered with excuses or do you want to make something happen?

Searching for simple

Here in Nepal, I’ve found the best moments are often the simple ones: quiet street corners, afternoon coffee, morning walks to the monastery, sunsets on mountain peaks, smiles exchanged with neighbors, the look on a student’s face when they understand.
I can’t help but wonder what America would be like if more people embraced simple.
Keep it simple today.

On risk

Risk frightens some people. It paralyzes others. Risk has stopped many people from doing incredible things.

Risk has also failed to prevent others from wholeheartedly chasing their dreams.

It might be worth asking whether risk is your fear dressed in disguise.

If risk wasn’t an issue, would your decisions change?

Why you should quit

Before traveling to Nepal, I did some major quitting: I quit my job, quit a relationship, quit where I was living, and quit some hard held beliefs about the way life should be lived. At the time, I couldn’t put my finger on what it was. The pieces were there, but the puzzle wasn’t coming together.
After taking time to revisit my go-to list of dreams (I suggest you write a list of your own), I set out to follow my heart. To many on the outside, not much seemed sensible about heading off to a different country to work for free and climb mountains. It might have been one of the best decisions of my life.
If you’re stuck, if something feels askew, consider whether there is something you can set aside. If it’s meant to be, it will be there after you’ve  found renewed energy and refreshed commitment. Perhaps you discover what was missing all along, something beyond anything you could have possibly imagined.
Quitting isn’t easy. It takes guts and courage and conviction to ditch plans and rewrite stories.

Be here now.

Chances are high you’re doing your best to complete several different tasks as you read these words. Would would happen if, for today alone, you commit to performing each responsibility individually and mindfully?
Slowing our actions can bring forth surprising new perspectives on performance and efficiency. More is not always best.