found this populating another site ... just changed it up a bit bit for the same food for thought ...
Students in a school were each given a balloon and instructed to inflate it with thoughts of what each wanted in life.
Then told to tie up the end of the balloon, write their name on it and deposit it into the school hallway.
With the balloons now mixed together, students were then instructed to search for their own balloon
within a 5 minute time limit. If anyone popped a balloon in the search, they would not be able to continue.
With not one balloon popped and despite each student's own effort, no one was able to find their own balloon.
They were then instructed to take the first balloon that they find and hand it to the person whose name was written on it.
Within 5 minutes, everyone had their own balloon.
The task concluded with ...
"Consider that the balloon that is now in your hands, is filled with your own happiness.
Notice how difficult it was for finding when merely looking for your own.
However, realize that when we collectively helped toward finding another person's happiness,
we are each now enjoying our own much more quickly.