How do You Like Your Eggs

In 1932 in a tiny little town in Denmark, a woodworker named Ole Kirk Christansen started a factory making toys out of wood. There are millions of kids worldwide that are really happy that he did because the wooden toy factory burned to the ground and ole was forced to make toys out of plastic. this was how, what we know as Lego today, came about. Ole didn't just have a vision to make money but also one to give children something that meant something, had value and would change the way that they saw the world around them. Ole achieved this but only after he had died. You see, Ole never lived to see Lego become the success that we know it to be today. What he did know was that somehow he was changing lives, one brick at a time.

I recently watched a short animated video on the history of Lego and several salient points became clear to me. I'd like to share some of those with you.

When we're not looking

The reward of doing something for someone else most often manifests when we are completely oblivious to the idea that we have had any sort of impact in another person's life. It is only when we forget ourselves and put others first and genuinely have their well being in mind that doing the right thing for others becomes automatic. When we have resolved to put self second, it is then and only then that it becomes part of our character to simply be to others what they need us to be. It just happens when we're not looking.

Being all things to all

Often I find myself trying really hard to please people. Sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn't. The question I have come to ask myself time and again is "am I happy with who I am?". Often the answer is no. The secret to having meaningingful relationships with those we work with or those that are in our social realm is to first be secure in who you are. It's embarrassing to admit not only that I watched the movie "Runaway Bride", but that I actually learned a valuable lesson from it and even cried once or twice. In the movie Richard Gere's character (Ike Graham) asks Julia Roberts' character (Maggie Carpenter) how she likes her eggs. The conversation turns out to be the perfect analogy for self worth. The illustration is simple. Maggie bases how she eats her eggs on what previous partners preferred rather than what she actually liked, in fact it turns out that she didn't even like eggs. Often we will "like" certain things just because we are looking for approval from others. It's the basic human need to want to belong somewhere or to something. Is it worth sacrificing who we really are? We see this sort of compromise everywhere! We like a certain type of music because someone else who we need approval from likes it. As in Maggie's case we eat food that we don't necessarily enjoy just so that we don't have to explain why we don't like it.

I'm OK, you're OK

It's only when we deal honestly with one another that we start to see changes in relationships and other social interactions. It's only when we become truly honest with ourselves that we become honest with others. When we are honest with others regardless of the fall out, thats when we begin to change lives. when honesty becomes a way of life thats the point where lives are changed because we are just being ourselves.