In light of these challenging times, I thought this might be a wonderful story to share. It is from the program “Lead the Field” by Earl Nightingale. Earl Nightingale was one of the greats in the personal development industry. He was someone who not only inspired to pursue a career in personal development but one in radio as well. In fact, I was lucky enough to begin working at Nightingale Conant back in 2008. Amazing how things happen when you put them out into the Universe!
There are many lessons in this story. If you are feeling a bit out of sorts, perhaps this will inspire you to keep going. We all need that sometimes.
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One evening, a five-year old boy went to his father, gave him a BIG hug and then whispered in his ear: “Daddy, we don’t spend enough time together.”
The father, who loved his son so dearly, knew in his heart that he was right and replied: “You’re right son, and I’m so sorry! But I promise that I’ll make it up to you! Look… Since tomorrow is Saturday, why don’t we spend the entire day together? Just you and me!”
They agreed together on this plan and the little boy couldn’t be more happy. He went to bed that night with a big smile on his face, excited for the next day.
The next morning, the father woke up earlier than usual. He just wanted to make sure that he could still enjoy his cup of coffee with his morning newspaper, before his son awoke.
Lost in thought while reading the business section, he was caught by surprise when suddenly his son pulled the newspaper down and enthusiastically shouted: “Daddy, I’m up! Let’s play!”
The father, although excited to see his son and eager to spend the day together, found himself craving for just a little bit more time, so he could finish his morning routine.
He grabbed his son, gave him a HUGE hug and then quickly came up with an idea.
Earlier in his reading, he saw a full-page ad with a picture of the world as seen from space. He quickly found it, tore it up into little pieces, and spread them out on the table.
He found some tape for his son and said, “I want to see how fast you can put this puzzle together!”
The boy enthusiastically dove right in, while his father went back to reading the newspaper.
In a surprisingly short period of time, within just a few minutes, the boy had taped the picture back together. The father was astonished. He couldn’t believe it, so he asked his son, “How on earth did you do that so fast?”
The young boy replied, “It was easy, Dad! I couldn’t do it at first and I started to give up because it was so hard. But then I saw that there was a picture of a man on the other side. And when I put the man together, the world just fell into place.”
It’s time to put ourselves and our world back together. One step at a time.