What a Chocolate Shop Can Teach You About Life

Let me tell you a story about my friend Brian.

Like a lot of us, Brian goes to his local shopping centre almost every week. Groceries, gift shopping, errands, that kind of thing.

One day Brian was walking through his centre, when he noticed a new chocolate shop had opened up.

“Great!” he thought. “What a fantastic thing to have nearby. I can take my girlfriend here.”

The very next weekend, Brian took his girlfriend to the new chocolate shop. The menu was amazing – from strawberry and almond crepes, to salted caramel tarts, to toasted banana blueberry bread.

Brian, who is a friendly and open-hearted kind of guy, started chatting with the owners.

It turned out the shop had been there for TWO YEARS. He’d just failed to see it every time he walked past.

Does this sound familiar?

Brian’s chocolate shop could be a metaphor for so many things in our lives that surround us, but we simply fail to see.

The amazing people in our life that we take for granted.

The beauty of nature – new flowers blooming, sunshine on our skin, fresh ocean air, a bright full moon.

The simple joys of the everyday – laughter, fresh bed sheets, the smell of coffee, a comfy sweater, a perfectly ripe avocado.

Instead, we auto-pilot our way through the week.

Too captivated by circling thoughts of the past and future in our heads, to notice what’s happening in the present moment.

Too caught up in our worries and anxieties, to let feelings of happiness and excitement bubble to the surface.

Too busy counting what we don’t have, to appreciate and feel gratitude for all of the things we do have.

Too attached to our old ways of perceiving the world, to realise our perceptions may be faulty and keeping us trapped.

Too wedded to our assumptions and prejudices about people, to see who they really are, or who they’ve grown into.

Let the chocolate shop metaphor be your reminder:

To occasionally tune out the noise of your buzzing mind. To check in with what’s happening in the present moment. To look up and around at the beautiful world. To see your life and the people in it with fresh eyes.