Message from the President
Dear HKICC Friends,
The year is drawing to an end and I hope that you'll find some time during the holiday season to reflect over what happened this year and how you'd like to make 2009 your best year yet.
Though the year hasn't completely ended yet, I think it's fair to say that 2008 was a particularly eventful year. So was it a good or a bad year for you?
I would like you to consider a story about the ancient Chinese philosopher Chuang Tse who one day kept saying to everything people said: "Oh that's good!" When people said, "I have a new-born son" he would respond with "Oh that's good!" When someone came and reported, "My sister is very sick." He would still respond, "Oh that's good!"
His disciples started to worry if something was wrong with Chuang Tse. So they asked him: "Master, no matter what people are saying to you, you keep responding that it's good. Don't you know the difference between good and bad anymore?"
Chuang Tse responded, "Let me tell you a story. There was a farmer who was very old and who had a son. One day, a beautiful wild horse came to the farm and stayed with the farmer. People from the village came to the farmer and said, 'You are so lucky!' to which the farmer responded, 'Good luck, bad luck, who knows?' A few days later, the son of the farmer tried to ride this horse. After a while, the horse threw off the son and he broke his leg. Now the neighbors came and said, 'Oh, you are so unlucky. Now you need to take care of your son when he should take care of you.' The farmer responded again with 'Good luck, bad luck, who knows?'
A few weeks later the soldiers came to the village and recruited all young men, except the farmer's son because of his broken leg. Again the villagers came and said, 'You are so lucky that your son now doesn't need to go to the army.' To which the farmer again replied, 'Good luck, bad luck, who knows?'
You see, whatever seems 'bad' might be good for something. You may just not see it at that moment."
This is one of my most favorite stories and helps me to stay positive no matter what happens. As it turns out, whatever seems bad usually has something good in it - I might just not see it immediately.
Which leads me to my personal conclusion: "There are no bad incidents, only more or less pleasant ones."
So for me, it was definitely a good year - despite a number of unpleasant incidents.
Let's keep progressing!
Charlie Lang, President, HKICC
president@coachinghk.org
