What The Tintin Box Set Taught Me About Life
A missing book. A missing piece of this life.
I have a Tintin box set where I lost the sixth book.
When I was shifting cities, I might have misplaced it while packing or somebody else might have borrowed it. I’m not sure what exactly happened to that book, but right now, whenever I look at this set, all I can think about is how one book is missing.
I know I’ll never have a complete set again unless I buy a new box set. After all, who else is going to give me one book in a series, right?
A few days back, I was staring at my beautiful box set and feeling sad that it will never be whole. Then, the thought struck my head that out of eight books, I still have seven, but I am only focusing on the one that I lost.
Even though I have seven full books I can read and enjoy, I’m being sad over the one I’ll never be able to read.
And that gave me a moment of epiphany. This article is all about that and how the incomplete Tintin box set taught me a valuable life lesson.
The Missing Piece
So many times in our life, we think like this. We might be living in abundance, we might have hundreds of things that are amazing and incredible and enrich our lives in multiple ways. But if something’s missing, our brains can only focus on it.
Instead of seeing what we still have and what we can still make the most of, we only think of what we’ve lost and how badly it has impacted our life.
This is a simple thought, but I wanted to put it out there in front of the world because I know many people also think that.
Even though we have so many gifts we can be thankful for, we are only focused on what’s missing in our lives. Our brains can’t make peace with the fact that we’ll never have some things.
Instead of being happy or grateful for what we have, we choose to be sad.
The Choice of Happiness
I was wondering what if we learn to rewire our brains around the missing piece mentality?
How do we not focus on the missing piece and rather look at the bigger picture?
I know it’s easier said than done, and it won’t happen in and instant, but if we are conscious and mindful about it, maybe one day, we can bring about that change.
After all, so much of the self-improvement that we read today is focused around gratitude. It’s focused on the fact that we need to be thankful for what we have.
So if we can let this gratitude come from within us, rather than waiting for motivation from outside, maybe we can make self-improvement a part of our lives.
Key Takeaways
The main question here is how you can apply this learning to your life.
Maybe you can start by listing ten things you’re grateful for currently. I have written an article about how gratitude can make you help you be happy at all times.
In this situation as well, you can apply gratitude, so your focus shifts from the negative aspects to the positive.
If you feel this is something that resonates with you, let me know your thoughts in the comments.
If you have found a way to be grateful, instead of complaining about something that’s not there, I would love to know the framework or the method that works for you.
For book reviews and recommendations, follow me on Goodreads.