There is a story regarding missing tile syndrome which goes something like this.  In one big city, there used to be an owner of a beautiful hotel who decides to build a swimming pool to match the beauty of the hotel.   With the aim of building a beautiful pool to match with his magnificent hotel, the hotel owner arranges installation of beautiful tiles specially imported from Italy thus culminating with fulfilling his dream project of building a wonderful swimming pool which has on all the sides eye-catching Italian tiles fixed.  Initially the guests visiting the hotel began to appreciate the architectural marvel of the pool, taking photographs, selfie, etc. but this appreciation did not last for long, as it so happened that one of the visitor’s eyes catches the glimpse of the portion in swimming pool which has a blank space, that is, without a piece of beautiful Italian tile affixed which occurred due to the mistake of a construction worker who left one of the pieces of tile without fixing and space is inadvertently left blank.  Now, though initially everyone who came to the Hotel admired the beautiful Italian tiles installed in the swimming pool after seeing the intricacies of the wonderful tiles and could not stop appreciating the same yet as soon as the attention went to the blank space in between the beautiful tiles, then the news of the missing tile spread and visitors could no longer continue to admire the beautiful swimming pool, rather their attention got stuck only to the missing portion among the tiles.   Whoever returns from the swimming pool has only one complaint and that is about the missing tile.   The owner of the hotel obviously felt very bad on this and many other people also felt equally bad owing to the missing tile despite so beautifully adorned swimming pool with the Italian tiles and they felt that whatever one has to do, they should get the same fixed at the earliest.    As a result, none of the visitors to the hotel went back happily and satisfied and the beautiful swimming pool could not give the satisfaction that it deserved.   This ‘missing tile’ teaches us about our psychological behavior which gets attracted only towards the defect in any item or in its making and similarly drawing attention only to the defect in work or performance in other humans.   Even if everything is happening beautifully, but just because of one deficiency our attraction gets stuck towards that.  As far as missing tile or other’s viewing a person’s defect is concerned it is still bearable, but when the same happens with our life, that is, paying attention only to those things or materials which do not exist in our life this is a great psychological problem through which all of us are passing through and this syndrome is called Missing tiles syndrome and which in future gradually becomes the main cause of worries and depression.   Our whole attention is drawn towards that thing or things which we were not successful in attaining and this becomes the whole reason for our unhappiness.  We are too busy thinking about the things that we don’t have, that we forget to cherish the blessings that we have.  Whatever the good things happen in one’s life, one forgets and rather tends to concentrate only on those which are not available and this is the main cause of one remaining unhappy.   Can we not change this one habit and bring changes to our life, that is, ignore the missing tile ?  Has anyone ever given a thought to the fact that though God has given us 32 teeth but the tongue always gets stuck in between the broken teeth.  Even at home, our attention gets diverted towards the furniture that has been removed from its original place.  Similarly, if a mother has three children and one of them leaves for abroad, but still the thoughts of mother lingers only on that child who has left for abroad than the other two children who even though are living with her and doing all kinds of service to her.   There are many such instances in which we find ourselves remaining unhappy thinking about any of the thing we were not successful in achieving or which we missed out.  Most of us instead of being happy and contended with what we already possess, remain unhappy thinking about what we have not got or what we have lost.  This missing tile stole our all attention and makes us unhappy which also further leads to many kinds of psychological and physical disorders.  So, it is in one’s hand whether one keeps attention focused on what one has already achieved and remain happy or to pay more focus on the missing tile, that is, things which one was not successful in attaining and thus to remain unhappy ever.

Source: Time of India