A moment’s insight is sometimes worth a life’s experience. - Oliver Wendell Holmes

Every now and then I get a glimpse into life that offers a small but very valuable lesson. These little glimpses often happen at work and inspire me to write about them.

I read a quote from someone at Starbucks’ Corporate office one time that said with the many different syrups and add ins we had to offer, there were over 80,000 possible drinks that we could make.  That is a lot of options., however, we humans are creatures of habit and for the most part stick to the same old thing day in and day out, but what astounds me, is how often when people come up to order they never clarify whether or not they want their drink hot or cold, or what size, and when the standard recipe includes whip cream you ask them whether or not they want it they just shrug their shoulders and say something like, “It doesn’t matter.” YES IT DOES, it matters very much.

Jack Canfield in his book The Success Principles, he talks about a seminar he attended early in his career where he learned a very simple lesson. After a break during the seminar, they all returned to the classroom and on the attendees chairs were spiral notebooks. Some people had green, some had blue, Jack’s happened to be yellow. After they all sat down, the instructor told them if they didn’t like the color of their notebook they should try and trade with someone else in the room and get the color they wanted, which Jack gladly did, because he preferred blue.

The simple little lesson he learned was don’t settle for less than what you really want. Is the color of a spiral notebook all that important? In the grand scheme of things you may not think so, but this little “I don’t care” dance I see daily at Starbucks when people are putting in an order for a simple cup of coffee is pretty revealing. It tells me a couple of things about them.

1. They lack clarity in their lives, they can’t even define on such a small scale what it exactly it is they want not just out of life, but out of a cup of coffee.
2. They have such low self-esteem, they don’t feel as though they deserve to get exactly what they want in life, they are willing to settle for what the world will hand them.

Now it is time to notice the three fingers pointing right back at me as I write this. It is no wonder why I have not found much more success in my life, because I too in the past have not been clear on what it is I want out of life. Far too often I have been the guy on the other end when asked a question like, “What movie do you want to see Cary?” My response has been, “I don’t care, whatever you guys want to see.”

If you think I’m crazy, then just start asking your friends a simple question like, “What would make you happy right now?” Typical answer would be something like, “To make more money?” Now if the same question had been asked by their boss, his answer could be, “Okay, I’ll give you a raise of one dollar more a week.” They now make “more money” will this make them happy? Probably not. But it is no one’s fault but their own, they did not clarify exactly what, or how much they wanted.

It is my intention to continue to get more and more clear on exactly what it is I want out of life, to no longer be vague. It all begins though with understanding that I am a valuable being, that I am worthy and deserving of only the highest good that can come into my life and so are you.  Begin with just a simple cup of coffee, get clear on exactly how you want it, then apply that focus to the rest of your life and don’t settle for less.

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