Motivational and Inspirational Posts 5

• Once upon a time, there lived a King who, despite of his luxurious lifestyle, was neither happy nor content.
• One day, the King came upon a servant who was singing happily while he worked. This fascinated the King; why was he, the Supreme Ruler of the Land, unhappy and gloomy, while a lowly servant had so much joy. The King asked the servant, 'Why are you so happy?'
• The man replied, 'Your Majesty, I am nothing but a servant, but my family and I don't need too much - just a roof over our heads and warm food to fill our tummies.'
• The King was not satisfied with that reply. Later in the day, he sought the advice of his most trusted advisor.
• After hearing the King's woes and the servant's story, the advisor said, 'Your Majesty, I believe that the servant has not been made part of The Club 99.'
• 'The Club 99? And what exactly is that?' the King inquired.
• The advisor replied, 'Your Majesty, to truly know what The Club 99 is, place 99 Gold coins in a bag and leave it at this servant's doorstep.'  
• The King did as advised by his advisor.
• When the servant saw the bag, he took it into his house. When he opened the bag, he let out a great shout of joy. 
• So many gold coins! He began to count them. After several counts, he was at  last convinced that there were 99 coins. He wondered, 'What could’ve happened to that last gold coin? Surely, no one would leave 99 coins!'  
• He looked everywhere he could, but that final coin was elusive. Finally, exhausted he decided that he was going to have to work harder than ever to earn that gold coin and complete his collection.
• From that day, the servant's life was changed. He was overworked, horribly grumpy, and castigated his family for not helping him make that 100th gold coin. He even stopped singing while he worked.
• Witnessing this drastic transformation, the King was puzzled. When he sought his advisor's help, the advisor said, 'Your Majesty, the servant has now officially joined The Club 99.'
• He continued, 'The Club 99 is a name given to those people who have  enough to be happy but are never contented, because they're always  yearning and striving for that extra 1, saying to themselves: 'Let me  get that one final thing and then I will be happy for life.'

Moral of the Story

We have so much to be thankful for and we can live with very little in our lives, but the minute we are given something bigger and better, we want even more! We are not the same happy contented person we used to be, we want more and more and by wanting more and more we don’t realize the price we pay for it. We lose our sleep, our happiness; we work a lot but stop enjoying that; we hurt the people around us just as a price to pay for our growing needs and desires. That is what joining The 99 Club is all about. It is hard to contend against one's heart's desire; for whatever it wishes to have it buys/earns then at the cost of soul and peace, and we stop living life then.  Until you make peace with what we do, what we have and who we are, we'll never be content and happy. Who is rich? One that is content. And who is that? - Everybody, Anybody or Nobody?

Do your best and be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you. - Lao Tzu