This is a short story written by Leo Tolstoy. I first read this when I was a little kid and it’s been stuck in my head ever since. I’ll share some of my thoughts on it afterward:
Feeling hungry one day, a peasant bought himself a large roll and ate it. But he was still hungry, so he bought another roll and ate it. Still hungry, he bought a third roll and ate it. When the three rolls failed to satisfy his hunger, he bought some pretzels. After eating one pretzel, he no longer felt hungry.
Suddenly he clapped his hand to his head and cried:
“What a fool I am! Why did I waste all those rolls? I ought to have eaten a pretzel in the first place!”
Something that struck me when I recently thought about this story is how it relates to achievements. Just as the peasant didn’t consider how the rolls helped satisfy his hunger before he ate the pretzel, so too do some people not consider the advantages (whether they worked to develop them or were born into them) that got them to a certain place in life. They might overlook something small (or even something big) they’ve done and fail to realize how it’s benefited them. Like the peasant, they can attribute their success to one particular moment while ignoring everything that lead up to that moment. Whatever they did in that moment may have been critical to their success, but by itself it’s insufficient; without the groundwork they laid prior to that moment, they wouldn’t have accomplished what they set out to do.
While I try to avoid dwelling on the past, I also remind myself every so often of what I did to get where I am now. That gives me some ideas for what to do when I’m lacking direction and keeps me motivated to continue along this positive life path. I’ll remember this stuff whenever I think about this story from now on. I don’t even know how I got the idea for this analysis of the story, but I’m glad I did. It’s going to help me a lot and I hope it helps you as well.