A disgruntled fisherman named John sits on a dock alone early one morning. He’s fished on the same dock for fifteen years receiving the same results. In four hours he will catch only two fish and then go home.

These are John’s thoughts…

“There’s no fish in this pond, I probably have a defective fishing pole anyway. “

“These fish are so stupid; don’t they know when it’s time to eat?”

“I’m the worst fisher in the world.” “I need to leave this lake and go find a new lake.”

“Maybe there aren’t any fish in this lake.”

As he finishes his last thought a friend of his pulls up by the name of Henry. Henry asks, “Did you catch anything John?” John replies, “No I never seem to be able to catch anything in this dried up lake. I think I’m going to give up on this lake and find a new one where there are massive amounts of fish.”

Henry looks at John very puzzled. John asks, “Did I say something wrong? Did you catch anything Henry?”

Henry replies, “John, this is the most over stocked pond in the entire county. Each time I come to this lake I catch at least ten fish in an hour. I may have to occassionally change locations but I seldom stay in the same spot too long.”

John responds, “I’ve been coming to this lake for years and never catch anything but two fish named sorrow and grief.”

Henry replies back, “While your mind is focused on finding sorrow and grief maybe you should try looking for happiness and peace.”

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I learned a long time ago… that seeking things in life is a lot like fishing. You need a lot of patience, you need the right bait (mind -set) for what your fishing for. You need the right tools (pole, reel, tackle). But most of all, you need to accept that today you may not catch what your looking for, but never give up.

I posted this at ‘Fishing for chuckles‘

I took little sunshine fishing at the unit. We were fishing for large mouth bass (black bass) I walked to the truck to get a cigar and instructed her to watch the fishing poles. When I began walking back from the truck I saw her reeling in a fish. The big pole and the fighting fish was a challenge for her but she prevailed and dragged an eight pound bass on shore.

Needless to say she was proud, she had caught the biggest fish of the day and probably for years to come. When we got home she ran in the house and exclaimed, “I caught a big ‘wide’ mouth bass.”

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here are two related zendictive posts that also touch on this topic:

Fishing for Zen

Problem Solving

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