A couple of days ago, my husband something very powerful to me. Before I tell you what he said, I’ll tell you an old story.
In ancient times, there was a wealthy Persian man named Ali Hafed. He was quite wealthy and he owned many large farms.
One day, an old priest came to Ali Hafed and told him that if he had a diamond the size of his thumb, he would become even wealthier and could purchase dozens and dozens of farms.
Intrigued, Ali Hafed made up his mind to go and search for diamonds. He sold all his farms and spent all his money travelling over many seas and distant lands to find diamonds. After years of searching without success, he died alone in a foreign land, penniless and unfulfilled.
Meanwhile, one day, the man who purchased Ali Hafed’s farms found a curious sparkling black stone in a stream that cut through the entire farmland. The old priest was called in, and he confirmed that the sparkling black stone contained a diamond. They rushed out into the farms, and as they dug, they came up with acres and acres of beautiful, valuable diamonds.
This story was paraphrased from ‘Acres of Diamonds’ by Russell H. Conwell.
The morale of the story: If Ali Hafed had taken the time to dig in his own farms, he would have found what he went all around the world searching for.
Bringing it back home, the English translation of a popular Yoruba proverb goes thus: ‘What you are going to look for in Sokoto (a northern state in Nigeria, distant from the origin of the proverb) can be found in the pocket of your sokoto (Yoruba word for trousers)’.
Back to what my husband told me. He said:
“Don’t let the thought of what you don’t have spoil what you already have.”
Amazing.
Most of the time, we tend to think of what we DON’T have. We need to start thinking about what we DO have.
You already have your real wealth. Your diamonds are not in faraway mountains or in distant seas; they are in your own backyard, if you will but dig for them! Consider the resources, talents, gifts, skills, abilities, knowledge, passion, personality and experiences that you can offer the world. Don’t despise what you have, no matter how irrelevant it may seem. When you do a personal review, you’ll be surprised at the number of options available to you. Every person has something to offer.
So, go ahead, do and inventory of what you DO have. There are many good tools that can help you to do this. A very good one is The PAID (Personal Assessment Inventory and Discovery) Workbook. I created The PAID Workbook with you in mind, so you’ll find it easy to use. You can get it here at www.thelifeaholic.com if you subscribe to the newsletter.
I know you’re sitting right in the middle of your own ‘acres of diamonds’; it’s time to start digging.
