Expecting the unexpected

It is my contention that the purpose of life is not simply to be happy, but rather to find happiness when it is not obvious or easy to locate. Your ability to transform difficult into easy, negative into positive or adversity into advantage is what creates great joy and fulfilment. Resilience is not simply coping and enjoying when things are good but it is your ability to find the good, the learning or the improvement when things are tough.

One of the most horrible conditions is dementia. It's a cruel, slow and disarming disease that takes coherent and capable people and turns them into a hollow ghost of themselves that is almost unrecognisable. It is horrible to watch because there is no good ending. Dementia has no upside.

In Japan there exists a restaurant that has found a way to channel this condition into something that benefits both the individual and the community.

It's know as the restaurant of mistaken orders and it's staffed by people with dementia. The whole purpose of the cafe is that it gives people who otherwise live a confused and lonely life to have a sense of contribution and community around them. It also allows the people who attend the cafe to develop greater patience and compassion for others.[1]

Watch the video here

The theme of the restaurant is that you expect the unexpected. Patrons may order what they like but may receive something totally different. Their order may be mixed up, forgotten or they may even get something that they don't like. Sometimes the staff forget that they actually work there and sit down.

Patrons embrace the ethos of patience and surprise and understand that your experience here is a rather unique one. You may expect one thing and get another and that's ok….which is a metaphor for life.

Patience and kindness underpins this restaurant. They take a horrible condition and allow it to give quality of life and support for a community and maybe even a few life lessons along the way.

This disease with no apparent upside is teaching people patience and kindness. It is the perfect example of what it means to be pressure proof and turn your setbacks into springboards and your adversity into advantage.

When your day doesn't go according to plan, when people don't honour their commitments, when setbacks occur that you weren't planning for - how might you turn?these problems into challenges??

Where can you be more pressure proof?