Rooms in England are often not much bigger than a bed. I know this for sure because while writing this article, I am actually lying with my little daughters in a bed which is 15 cm away from the wall. On the other side, there is about 80 cm of space so we can walk out of the room. Gradually. One after the other.

If I imagined the corpulent (in England people are very polite and try to avoid those far too saucy words like good old “FAT”) Potter’s cousin Dudley sleeping in the bed instead of me, there would be technically no space for Harry Potter in the bedroom!

Additionally if you are not wealthy (Dursleys didn’t look rich to me) and live in London, in a house, you may expect it to look more like a doll house, at least from the perspective of someone who lived on the continent (just to support your imagination my one bedroom apartment in Prague is slightly larger than our fiends` two bedroom house!!! I am currently in).

In this situation, we should not ask why Potter lived under the stairs, but how the hell did he fit there?!?

Now when we are done with the crazy idea of bringing Harry back into the room, we can deliberate whether that theoretical possibility would do any good to him?

Would perfectly happy and loved Harry Potter ever go to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft? No! Harry would probably live a happy life in a “Muggle” secondary school right behind the corner. Would Harry meet his fantastic friends and the love of his live? Never! He would merry one of these boring, ordinary girls from the same neighborhood and kick the ball with fellows from his class in the meantime.

Who is willing to change something that works? Very few people! No „under stairs situation” to overcome, means no call for adventure to accept and Harry’s venture life would become a never fulfilled dream.

Most of us perform the best when being out of our comfort zone. This is a reality!

 So next time when life (or boss) tells you to move to a cubbyhole, smile and say: challenge accepted!

Then show them the art of changing a challenge into an opportunity!