When I arrived home one evening, my son let me know he had received a gift from his piano teacher. The gift was one of those blocks you excavate to find a surprise toy inside. He showed me the brochure it came with, and it showed that the surprise toy could be one of six dragons, with one being “rare” and another being “super rare”. He of course couldn’t wait to dig out the toy to see what he was going to get, and was already at it when I arrived. Soon after, he came running to me super excited. He had uncovered the toy and found that he had gotten one of the “rare” dragons!

Initially, I couldn’t help but think that the dragon he got wasn’t really rare and it was done as a marketing strategy to get kids to buy another one to go for the super rare dragon. I know, that’s pretty negative thinking 😊. But to my son it was rare, and that’s all that mattered. He was grateful when he first received his gift from his piano teacher, but now that he knew he had something rare, something more special, his gratitude for having received the gift was much more.

One advice for living a happy and successful life that is pretty much a constant, regardless of where it comes from, is to be grateful for what you have, with many suggesting to start the day this way. If we take that further, how would our day change if we start slapping “RARE” stickers to things around us (in the positive sense), making them more special to us and in turn being more grateful for them.

Note: If you find yourself not knowing where to start with the slapping of “RARE” stickers, you can start by placing one on your forehead, since the probability of you being born, of this world having a “you” in it, is one in 400 trillion! I would say that’s pretty rare.