The moral of the story? You get what you’re looking for. If you’re convinced that the world is full of assholes, you’ll surely find them. On the other hand if you’re convinced that the world is full of good natured kind people, you’ll surely find them.

Be careful what you look for. Be careful what you believe about people. You will always find evidence to support that belief.

Story # 2 — The butterfly

A little girl is having a very rough time at school. She’s not making friends, hates her teachers, and thinks that the material they study in class is useless.

Needless to say, she’s not a very happy little girl and is going through a hard time in life.

One day her dad suggests, “I have a friend who owns a farm out in the country. I’ll send you there so that you can take some time for yourself and relax. Clear your head and get into nature.”

The little girl agrees to go, hoping that a change of scenery might be exactly what she needs in order to get out of this funk that she’s in.

A few days and a short flight later, the girl arrives at the farm ready for adventure

….and she immediately begins to regret her decision.

She calls up her dad and says, “Dad this place sucks! It smells and it’s dirty. The horses are boring and don’t do anything. There’s nothing to do here. I hate it!”

The dad replies, “Sorry to hear that darling. You know what, I’ll make a deal with you. If you can find a butterfly, I’ll fly you right back home today.”

The girl replies, “A butterfly!? Dad what the hell are you talking about! It’s cold out here and there’s no butterflies this time of year. That’s impossible!”

The day merely sighs and says, “well, that’s your deal. Find me a butterfly and I’ll fly you home. I’m confident you can make it work.”

“Screw you dad! This is insane. You’re just sending me on a wild-goose chase to keep me occupied. This isn’t fair!”

The dad hangs up the phone…

For the next two days the dad receives text message after text message from the daughter.

“This is insane!”

“Dad there are no butterflies here can you give me another challenge?”

“Cmon dad this is crazy! How the hell am I supposed to find a butterfly out here!!!”

“Fuck this. Fuck you!!!”

“I. Hate. You.”

And so on…

Then the next day the phone is quiet. No text messages coming through.

Then suddenly on day 4, the dad wakes up to a flurry of text messages.

The first is a picture of a butterfly on a ceramic plate.

The next is a picture of a butterfly on a picture frame.

The next is a picture of a butterfly on the shower curtain. Then on the doormat when walking into the house. Then in coloring books.

Finally she calls the dad and says, “I get it dad! I get it!!! I was looking for a physical butterfly but that was preventing me from seeing the butterflies all around me!!!”

The dad replies, “Good job. Now, I will keep my end of the deal and fly you home. But first, because I am your father, I’m going to give you a little lecture.

“When you were at home you saw everything as crappy. You found some small flaw in everything you looked at. You were searching for reasons to be unhappy, and you found them for yourself. Then when you arrived at the farm, it was more of the same. You wanted reasons to be unhappy, and you found them.

You see, the same applies in life. If you see everything from the lens of “this sucks” you’ll find evidence to support that belief. BUT if you flip it, and look for reasons to be happy, you’ll find evidence to support that belief as well.

The butterfly is an analogy for “you get what you’re looking for.” When you were pissed off, you closed yourself off to the possibilities of having a good time. Of seeing the magic around you. Of looking outside of the box. You were trapped in your lens of perception.

But once you saw one butterfly, you saw them everywhere around you. They were there the whole time, you just couldn’t see them.

In the future whenever you’re upset, remember the butterfly. Remember that there are always reasons to be happy if you’re looking for them. There are always reasons to be grateful and appreciative, you just need to have your eyes open to it.”