Of Course the Grass will be Greener!!

Have you ever wondered why the grass seems almost always greener on the other side?  Or how someone else’s kids are more disciplined than your unruly bunch, or my personal favorite, why the next lane is always moving faster than the one you’re currently stuck in?  Hmm, I’ve often chucked it down to a trick of the eyes, one that often leads you to disillusionment the moment you cross fence or in my favorite instance, change lanes. 

This weekend however, I gave this phenomenon another thought and drew a few conclusions of my own…

1.        Obviously, the grass will be greener on the other side.  Why? Because it's the other side!  Remember that given an adequate distance, you are often not privy to the details of a situation.  In the case of the grass, a distance of about two hundred meters can make you blind to the little brown patches, the little worms and insects that crawl in the grass.  Most of the green patch you are seeing could even be weeds in between some grass.  Distance has a way of deleting details.  That school mate who seems to have her life all figured out, is riding in the posh new car and looks like a model on the cover of “Agoo”, could be fighting to keep her marriage and children intact, or paying back a huge loan from the bank or might just be a better planner, but you wouldn’t know the details because you are not in her shoes.  Lesson; don’t take things on face value. 

2.       The lane will likely slow down when you change!  There’s a thin line between taking inspiration from someone and coveting.  That posh school mate could make you aspire to a certain life, she could make you dream big and she could make you want to work extremely hard to get some glam in your life.  But be careful not to start coveting what she has because that can lead you to all sorts of temptations including taking a big personal loan (now that the banks are offering it without much impediments) to finance a new shinny car that might make your already tight budget tighter.  I have heard of people stealing other people’s wives (because they thought they were much more posh and better organised than theirs) only to be completely disillusioned.  Lesson; let people inspire you to dream, don’t start thinking you should and can get exactly what others have!!!

3.       You can’t trade in your kids.  We all have different purposes, plans and if I should dare…destinies.  A particular profession, position or opportunity might be well suited for someone else but you because of personality, temperament, experience and so forth.  Don’t be in a rush to do something because someone else is making a success of it.  It could be that you may not have the talent for it, you may not have the funds for it or you may not even have the passion to drive it.  You have to be able to assess opportunities that come your way on merit because they will work for you and not because they worked for someone else.  Lesson; in life one size doesn’t fit all.