This is one of my favorite stories I’ve heard, and has been a great motivator throughout my journey to travel the world, and write a book. I can’t remember where I originally heard it, but I looked it up on the internet today and found a really good excerpt from an article written by David G. Allan, Editorial Director of Health and Wellness for CNN.

Here’s the excerpt from the article about the story:

“Its origin is unknown but it comes from the Taoist tradition so it could easily be more than 2,000 years old. And even though that’s about as old as stories get, this one is completely relevant to your life and how you can live in the future.

It’s a story of a farmer and his horse.

One day his horse runs away. And his neighbor comes over and says, to commiserate, “I’m so sorry about your horse.” And the farmer says “Who Knows What’s Good or Bad?” The neighbor is confused because this is clearly terrible. The horse is the most valuable thing he owns.

But the horse comes back the next day and he brings with him 12 feral horses. The neighbor comes back over to celebrate, “Congratulations on your great fortune!” And the farmer replies again: “Who Knows What’s Good or Bad?”

And the next day the farmer’s son is taming one of the wild horses and he’s thrown and breaks his leg. The neighbor comes back over, “I’m so sorry about your son.” The farmer repeats: “Who Knows What’s Good or Bad?”

Sure enough, the next day the army comes through their village and is conscripting able-bodied young men to go and fight in war, but the son is spared because of his broken leg.

And this story can go on and on like that. Good. Bad. Who knows?

But what’s the point?

Well, the meaning of that story is that the Western paradigm in which we label experiences good or bad — is wrong. It’s a false dichotomy. At the very least, this distinction between good and bad is not so clear; it’s blurry.”

I’ve experienced my own versions of the farmer and the horse in my lifetime. For me, physical fitness has always been super important. As an athlete, my goal was to stay in shape, work out, never miss a beat, and still be playing basketball when I’m 40. To achieve this, I worked out all the time. Forget the lazy freshman 15 in college; I was working out and adding closer to 15 pounds of muscle. I got out of college, and kept it going. Then, at my athletic peak, I tore my ACL. This is a bad thing, right? It was painful, frustrating, untimely, and discouraging. I rehabbed hard and finally got back about to where I was. Then, it happened again, and again. 3 knee surgeries, in 3 years. I lost a lot of athleticism. I lost a lot of my identity. I was forced to change.

What I didn’t add to that story is that midway through my first stint in rehab, I decided that I would make it a goal to be positive and make my physical therapist’s day better every time I went in. I worked hard, and formed a good relationship with all of them. Sometime throughout my rehab process, I met a former Kansas City Chief, and showed him my artwork. This led to doing a painting for him, and then his friend, Jamaal Charles wanted one. Then I met an MLB player who was working out there and ended up doing 3 for him. On top of all of that, I decided to put more focus into my art and my teaching. I went out and met artists. I worked on my own art. Most importantly, I realized that there’s really no reason for me to try to be a pick-up basketball all-star. There’s no reason for me to be just another try hard, way past their prime, trying to live in the glory days.

It opened up my eyes to see that there are opportunities available all areas of life.