How can we overcome our limitations

Opticians usually have arrangements for eye-testing on the pre¬mises so that customers can have their eyes tested and buy their spectacles all in the same shop. One of my acquaintances once opened a spectacle shop. It was rather small, certainly not big enough to permit eye-tests to be carried out, for a distance-vision chart has to be 18 feet away from the client. And this little shop was only 9 feet in length. My friend was quite unperturbed by this. When asked how he proposed to do eye-testing in such a confined space, he said, “Simple! We just fix a mirror on the wall, and there you are! The distance is doubled!” The clients could then be asked to read the chart through the mirror because the reflection would have the effect of doubling the distance. Undaunted by the acute shortage of space, this shopkeeper had shown great ingenuity in solving his problem.

This principle is applicable in most of life’s arenas. When you have limited opportunities, when your horizons seem narrow, there is no need to become a defeatist. It is simply a question of racking your brains and you will be able to “convert” your “9-feet shop” into an “18-feet shop”.