Once a craftsman went to the forest to find a stone to make an idol. There he found a shiny and good quality stone. Seeing it, he got very happy and took it with him.
When he was returning to his home, on his way, he found another good stone. He picked up that as well also and continued his way home.
When he reached home, he started working on the first stone with his tools.
When the tools hit the stone, a voice came from stone, "Please don't hit me. It is hurting me a lot. If you hit me, I will fall apart. Please leave me."
Craftsman felt pity on hearing this. He left the stone and took another stone and started using his tools on it to make the idol.
That stone didn't complain about pain or being hurt. In some time, the craftsman was able to make a very beautiful idol of God from it.
The next day, the people of the village came to collect God's idol. They needed another stone as well to be kept in the temple. When they told the craftsman about it, he took that first stone and gave it to villagers.
People decorated the temple and placed God's idol, while the first stone was placed in front of that idol to crack the coconuts that devotees bring.
Now, whenever a devotee would come to visit the temple, he would worship Idol with flowers and bathe it with milk while use another stone to break the coconut.
This made the first stone very upset as he would feel pain every time a devotee used it to break the coconut.
One day when the first stone was crying, the second stone from which the idol was made asked him, "Why are you crying?"
At this, the first one replied, "You are so lucky, having fun because people worship you. They bathe you in milk and take great care of you whereas nobody cares about me, they break coconuts with me.. which hurts."
At this, another stone smiled and said, "When craftsman was working on you, if you had not stopped him at that time, you would have been in my place today... But you chose an easy path, you didn't want to go through any pain at that time, that's why you are suffering now.."
Flash: Unlike the first stone, we all have the people who come to us and start giving compliments for our achievements. But they don't know the struggles that we faced to achieve success. Obstacles are the pre-condition for growth. Without going through extended periods of hard work, sweat and difficulty, we can not move beyond our current level of performance. The most important factor behind the success is the amount of hard work, pain, and consistency we put in.
Moral: The temptation to quit will be greatest just before you are about to succeed. So when you feel like quitting, think about why you started.
"The only limits in life are the ones you make. Stop thinking in terms of limitations and start thinking in terms of POSSIBILITIES !!"