Worth The Squeeze

I was preparing to speak at an I Can Do It conference and I
decided to bring an orange on stage with me as a prop for my lecture. I opened
a conversation with a bright young fellow of about twelve who was sitting in
the front row.

“If I were to squeeze this orange as hard as I could, what
would come out?” I asked him.

He looked at me like I was a little crazy and said, “Juice,
of course.”

“Do you think apple juice could come out of it?”

“No!” he laughed.

“What about grapefruit juice?”

“No!”

“What would come out of it?”

“Orange juice, of course.”

“Why? Why when you squeeze an orange does orange juice come
out?”

He may have been getting a little exasperated with me at
this point.

“Well, it’s an orange and that’s what’s inside.”

I nodded. “Let’s assume that this orange isn’t an orange,
but it’s you. And someone squeezes you, puts pressure on you, says something
you don’t like, offends you. And out of you comes anger, hatred, bitterness,
fear. Why? The answer, as our young friend has told us, is because that’s
what’s inside.”

It’s one of the great lessons of life. What comes out when
life squeezes you? When someone hurts or offends you? If anger, pain and fear
come out of you, it’s because that’s what’s inside. It doesn’t matter who does
the squeezing—your mother, your brother, your children, your boss, the
government. If someone says something about you that you don’t like, what comes
out of you is what’s inside. And what’s inside is up to you, it’s your choice.

When someone puts the pressure on you and out of you comes
anything other than love, it’s because that’s what you’ve allowed to be inside.
Once you take away all those negative things you don’t want in your life and
replace them with love, you’ll find yourself living a highly functioning life.

Thanks, my young friend, and here’s an orange for you!