Life as a Banquet
Column written February 5, 2003
If you’ve ever been to a restaurant buffet, you know there are many more choices than you could possibly eat at one sitting. The trick is to develop a strategy. First, you take a tour of the entire buffet to see what’s being served. Having seen all there is to offer, you can now choose the things that appeal to you the most.
Why not approach life in the same way? First, take a look at all that’s available. Next, put onto your plate only those things that will truly please you. The way those things end up on your plate is by putting your full attention on them.
Instead, most of us approach the banquet of life as if life is trying to poison us. If we approached the restaurant buffet the same way many of us approach life, here is what our conversation would sound like:
“Ugh, look at that. I sure don’t want to have any of that. I can’t believe they even made that. What was the chef thinking? I hope he changed spoons when he was dishing it out. I don’t want any of the taste of THAT on my food. Ugh, that’s really terrible looking, don’t you agree? Hey, look at this! Can you believe they included this dish on the buffet? I’m going to start a petition to make sure they NEVER include that dish again. Would you like to sign it? Maybe we should form a committee. Let’s lobby our elected officials and get a law passed that prohibits all restaurants from serving that dish.”
Folks, life is an amazing banquet. There are delicious things that we want and other things we most definitely do not want. The things you don’t want cannot end up on your plate unless you put them there! By simply leveraging the Law of Attraction which says, “You attract more of what you pay attention to,” you can have an amazing meal every single day. But most of us decide to pay attention to what we don’t want and wonder why we have a bitter taste in our mouths.
It’s a stressful time, there’s no doubt about it. The economy is bad. People are getting laid off. Others are worried about their own jobs. But there is so much to be grateful for. Even the poorest of us have great things in their lives if they only looked.
In the movie Auntie Mame, Rosalind Russell tells her nephew Patrick, “Life is a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death.”
What do you currently have in your life that you want to keep? Mentally put those things onto your plate:
– Your job
– Co-workers
– Your skills & talent
– Your health
– Family & friends
– Pets
Are you spending too much time worried about things that might never happen? I’m not saying to put your head in the sand and pretend everything’s fine. When faced with a potential problem, there is only one of two sides you can be on. You can be looking at the problem or focused on the solution. If you’re focused on the solution, then you are inviting the Universe to deliver things that are a match to that. You are asking for solutions, and they come.
I spoke to my friend Lucy the other day who told me an amazing story. She said her business was not doing well and she was becoming very concerned about money. Then she decided she would simply let it go and trust that somehow she would be provided for. She quietly went about doing more to attract business and therefore money. In other words, she was focused on the solution.
A friend came to visit her and saw a painting on the wall that had been there for over 20 years. She told Lucy she thought it was worth money. They tracked down an agent who specialized in selling this particular artist’s work. A short while later, the agent sold it and sent Lucy a check for $57,000! Lucy had no idea. It was just a painting she’d kept, without being sure why.
There are many choices of what to pay attention to in your life. Don’t turn a blind eye to the things you don’t want. Look at them, acknowledge that they are there, and then turn your full attention to those things you DO want on your plate. Then watch as Law of Attraction works its magic in your life.
Bon appetit!
Silver
