Which One Are You?

I received this in my email today..and thought I would share it:

A young woman went to her mother and told her she was going through some hard times. She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as one problem was solved, a new one arose.
Her mother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to boil. In the first she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs, and in the last she placed ground coffee beans. She let them boil for about twenty minutes and then poured each into a separate bowl. Turning to her daughter, she said, "Now tell me what you see."

"Carrots, eggs, and coffee," she replied. Her mother asked her daughter to feel the carrots, which were soft, and the eggs, which were now hard-boiled. Finally, the mother asked her daughter to sip the coffee. The daughter smiled at the rich aroma and silky taste.

"What does it mean?" she asked. Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity: boiling water. Each reacted differently. The carrots went into the water strong and hard but had become soft and weak. The fragile eggs had hardened. The coffee grounds were another matter altogether. Instead of being changed, they changed the water.

"When adversity knocks on your door, which are you? Are you a carrot, an egg, or a coffee bean?" she asked her daughter.
"Will you be the carrot that seems strong but wilts under the strain of adversity? Or will you be the egg that starts with a malleable spirit? Then tough times – death, a breakup, financial hardship, or some other trial – leave you with a shell that looks the same on the outside. Yet inside you have a stiff spirit and hardened heart?

"Or will you be like the coffee bean? In painful circumstances, will you find a way to change them and make them better? When the hour is the darkest and trials greatest, will you elevate yourself and those around you to another level?"

How do you handle adversity? Are you a carrot, an egg, or a cup of coffee?

This story is an excellent reminder that the results we get in tough times have more to do with our actions and approach than with the difficult circumstances that we (and our competitors) find ourselves in.