Sometimes In Life All You Need To Do Is Sit Back And Read A Good Story
If you have been following our journey into blogging, then we know that you like to read. Sometimes, all it takes is a quick 5 minute read on something nice and positive, in order to shift your mind into the right state.
With life racing as quick as it does, we can often find ourselves never having the time to read. Or, we do have the time, we just rather spend it doing something more relative.
If you enjoy a quick read, and enjoy taking in some out of the box positive messages told through short stories, then this is some inspiration you might particularly enjoy.
Here Are 3 Great Mini Inspirational Stories To Lift Your Spirits & Gain A Broader Perspective :
1. Eric Thomas: Breathe
A young boy who wanted to learn how to make money badly, began asking people around town if they were rich, and if they could teach him how to become “successful.”
The young boy was on a mission to figure out exactly what he needed to do in order to make money and become successful.
The young boy didn’t know where to begin exactly, but he decided that he would first start by finding someone who could point him into the right direction.
So, he began asking everyone in town around him if they were rich, and if they could teach him to become rich.
Many people ignored his questions, until an old man overheard him asking random people how to become rich and approached the young boy.
The old man, taps the young boy on the shoulder, and as the boy turns around, the old man says, “excuse me, I overheard you asking people if they are rich.” He followed up, “why are you doing this?”
The young boy goes on to tell the old man; that he needs to learn how to make money, and he figures what better teacher than someone who has already achieved it?
The old man with appreciation for the young boy’s tenacity and ambition, he goes on to tell the young boy that he can help him.
The old man says to the boy, “If you want to really learn, meet me tomorrow at the beach, at 4 AM.”
The young boy exclaims, “the beach??!!”, “I want to learn how to make money and become rich and successful, I don’t need to learn how to swim!”
The old man pauses for a few seconds, gets down to eye level, looks right into the boys eyes and says, “If you want to learn how to make money and truly become successful, meet me at the beach tomorrow, at 4AM.”
The old man reaches out to shake the young boys hand, and then turns around and leaves.
The next morning, the young boy walks out onto the beach. He wore his suit, thinking he was going to learn how to make money and become successful, he needed to look the part.
He see’s the old man, and approaches him. He then blurts out with eagerness to learn how to become rich— “Okay, I am here. Teach me how to make money and become rich and successful!”
The old man asks, “Just how bad do you want to be successful?”
The boy responds, “real bad!”
So, the old man then goes and instructs the boy to go and walk out into the water, up until the water hits waist high.
The young man exclaims, “I am in a suit, my only suit!”
The old man points to the water, and the young boy goes out to the water.
The water is reaching his waistline at this point, and the man insists for him to continue just a bit further.
As soon as the young boy turned around to continue, the old man grabbed the young boy by the neck and dunked his head underwater and held him there.
The young boy was caught off guard, and panicked, and tried to fight his way free.
The old man quickly eases the tension and pulls him back out of the water.
The boy, both angry and anxious, tries to catch his breath. As he wipes the water off of his face, he yells out to the old man, “you trying to kill me?, what is wrong with you?”
The old man holds the boy, placing one hand on each shoulder, leans forward, and looks deep into his eyes and asks the boy one question…
He asks, “When you were down there, what was the ONE thing on your mind?”
The young boy angry and upset, but still trying to listen, yells—”to get oxygen! I wanted to breathe!”
The old man smiles and replies, “You figured it out.”
The old man continues, “When you discover within yourself, that you want to succeed as bad as you want to breathe, then, and only then, will you become successful.”
“When You Want To Succeed As Bad As You Want To Breathe — Then You Will Be Successful”
– Eric Thomas
2. The Gold-Rush Miner Who Quit Too Soon
Many years ago, during the 18th Century Gold Rush, there was a miner named R.U. Darby in Colorado.
Darby, had been mining for gold endlessly. He spent a majority of his money purchasing the greatest mining equipment that he could afford.
Darby had some luck as he struck a small amount of gold. That small amount of gold that Darby discovered was believed to be linked to a greater discovery. Darby thought that he could have possibly found the richest gold mine in Colorado. His main focus; “If I can just find a bit more gold to prove this theory to be correct.”
Darby, along with his uncle, who helped him to dig deeper into finding more gold, worked day and night.
They put all of their resources and effort into trying to prove themselves right.
However, they found themselves putting in days of labor, without any luck or results to show for their efforts.
Their frustration continued to run high, as their desired outcome was not being met the way they had envisioned.
They pushed themselves as hard as they could, not giving into the desire of quitting too soon. However, mental and physical exhaustion was creeping in.
Darby, after much frustration, decided to call it quits and cancel his search for gold.
He thought he was right where he needed to be, but the lack of results showed him otherwise, and they quit.
Shortly after quitting, Darby went out and sold all of his mining equipment to a man who was interested throughout this gold-craze phase as well.
During this time, there where more than 300,000 people who had made their way around in order to capitalize on this new found opportunity.
A very short amount of time passed, and an engineer along with a new miner, had heard about Darby’s discovery. They had decided that they were going to start exactly where Darby left off.
As the miner and his engineer found the spot, they began working together. They lowered into the cavity, the same place where Darby had left off.
The miner had both a good and strange feeling that something was there.
As quickly as they could, they got to work.
Within no time at all, they hit something…
Within just 3 feet of digging, right where Darby had quit previously, he strikes gold!
They jumped in joy and disbelief. They yelled, they hugged each other, and they celebrated.
After all, they had just discovered what could possibly go down as one of the greatest gold discoveries in the history of Colorado.
“Never, Never, Never Quit”
—Winston churchill
3. The Banker And The Lawyer
This story begins in a bar, where a lawyer and a wealthy banker are both sitting down, with a group of colleagues having drinks and sharing food.
The bar is filled with people sitting at different tables, talking loudly, and practically sharing the same ambiance.
As the alcohol is flowing and things become more risky, the wealthy banker challenges a colleague to take on a bet.
The colleague says, “what’s the bet old man?”
The wealthy banker replies, “I bet you could not go 5 years in complete isolation.”
“Isolation?!”, the colleague responds back, in a high pitched voice, after almost spitting his beer out in confusion.
“That’s right!, Solitary confinement”— said the wealthy banker.
He continued to elaborate on the big bet, “I have the space at my mansion, I create the rules, and the main rule is you will have no contact with the outside world for 5 years.”
The colleague looks with a grin on his face, both with confusion and interest. He replies, “Rubbish! That is complete nonsense.”
The colleague continued, “That would mean, I lose 5 years of my life being trapped in a house with you—No deal.”
The lawyer, a friend of both the colleague and the wealthy banker, who had been listening to all of this take place right in front of him says, “What will you bet, if I complete the 5 years of solitary confinement?”
The wealthy banker smiles as he leans back into his seat and casually responds, “I will give you two million rubles.”
Without hesitation, the lawyer extends his hand in agreement and yells out, “deal!”
The banker and the lawyer shake on the bet and the lawyer goes on to move into the wealthy banker’s mansion.
Apart from the actual mansion itself, rested a nice little guest house on the property. “This will be all yours”, said the wealthy banker. “No communication with anyone for the next 5 years, but to make things better for you, I will provide you with any book that you can possibly desire. If I do not have the book, I will find it for you and have it brought to you.”
The lawyer accepts again and begins his journey. Excited for that large payday that will make him rich.
Time passes quickly, and the old man starts to become worried. He becomes anxious because he sees that the lawyer is going to complete his portion of the bet. He is going to complete the 5 years of solitary confinement!
He couldn’t believe it.
This would mean that he would have to pay him, and that payment, would ruin him…
You see, years have passed and the banker’s financial picture had changed since he made the bet. A loss of this magnitude, would bankrupt him! He would lose everything!
So, the wealthy banker sat in his bed one night, and devised a plan to go and murder the lawyer in his sleep.
This would mean that he cannot finish his portion of the bet and would have to forfeit.
The wealthy banker believed that he could pay someone to have the body and the crime scene cleaned up. This way, he could keep his fortune. He became desperate in his thoughts.
That same night, he sprung out of bed and decided that he will quietly sneak into the guest house and make things look like a brutal robbery gone wrong.
As he sneaks quietly towards the guest house, he becomes nervous. He closely holds the knife to himself, so that nobody can see it.
As he enters the room, he sees the lawyer asleep at the table. He fell asleep with a pen in his hand and a paper that laid on the table with some writing on it.
The lawyer had finished writing a note to the wealthy banker, before he had fallen asleep.
He approaches the lawyer quietly, and reads the hand written note; explaining that the the lawyer will be leaving the guest house 5 hours short of his bet.
This would forfeit his own profits, and he would lose the bet.
The banker was confused as to why he would forfeit all of his profits, after losing 5 years of his life.
In the note, the lawyer explains that he had been reading books for 5 years. The knowledge and wisdom he had obtained through reading books over the course of five years, was way more valuable to him than the money.
He was able to study all walks of life, all heroes of life, the greatest and most beautiful stories ever written in books.
His conclusion…. he didn’t want the money. For he learned; what money can do to the man.
He preferred to take the newly found wisdom that he had acquired from books over the past 5 years, and build his own wealth.
When the old man finished reading his note, he put away the knife and went off running back to his compound.
He locked himself in his room, leaned against the wall, and began to cry alone.
The rich banker knew what the money had done to him over the years, and he knew that the lawyer was right.
“Money is a great servant, but a bad master.”
—Francis Bacon
Final Thoughts 💭
It is important to keep stories like these close to your mind and be able to remind yourself whenever necessary, the morals of these stories.
When you decide to take something on in your life, you need to make sure you know why you are doing it and you must never stop until you achieve your end goal. When you feel like quitting, you push further.
Whatever it is that you choose to do with your life, make sure that you don’t do it for the money.
Chasing money always ends with an empty hole in your heart. While money and financial stability may be one of the goals, it shouldn’t be your driving force. You will only go so far, before you drop out.
When you are able to find a deeper meaning and substance towards your goals, then you will be able to sustain the effort and work over long periods of time and not give up.
