Hearing a classic wise tale, I felt I would add it here. This old guy had a prized horse, and he was talking to his neighbor. The next day the prized horse ran away, and again the old guy was talking to the neighbor, and the neighbor said “Sorry for the loss of your horse…” the old guy replied “Who knows whether that is good or bad…” The neighbor was confused.

The next day, the horse came back and brought back with him 12 other horses. The neighbor shocked, said the the old guy “Congrats on being rich with horses…” The old guy replied “Who knows if this is good or bad.. but you seem to keep coming to conclusions so quickly” The neighbor again is confused.

The next day the old guys son was thrown from one of the horses and broke his leg. The neighbor learning of this came over and said to the old guy “Sorry about your son…” the old guy reiterated, “who knows if this is good or bad… why do you keep drawing conclusions..” The neighbor is really, really confused about this one.

The net day the Army came around took every able bodied young men, having a broken leg was spared from going. The story can go on and on, and the question is what do we learn from story. Maybe it is not to get too high, or get too low. Maybe for every great thing that happens, may not be that great, and for bad things that happen, may not be that bad. The lesson I see may not be the same for everyone.

I wrote previously about looking down when climbing up to celebrate how far you have gone. But if you were to believe this story above, you shouldn’t as do not get excited for the victories. But maybe the lesson is to look at it for what it is, and enjoy it now matter if seems good or bad, either way it is an experience that you managed to survive, and wait to see what comes next.

Or maybe the stories lesson is not to draw conclusions to anything too quickly. The final answer maybe a few days away, or even longer. That the success or failure maybe different a few days, months or years later. So be mindful on the things that happen, take them for what the moment is, and look later in retrospective and how it changes over time.