The other day, I was at the bank and saw someone that I knew at one of the teller windows. It seemed as though, whatever transaction(s) were being conducted, it was pretty intense. The bank was kind of busy so I didn't say anything to the person that I knew. As I was finishing up my transaction, the bank had cleared out, except for the employees, the person that I knew, and myself. I looked over to the person that I knew, and said with a smile on my face, "You can at least smile." I said this because of the distress that I had noticed on the person's face. Her response to me was, "Life sucks." I felt the pain in the person's voice and empathy set in. I responded with a kind smile and, "Naw." I quickly changes the subject to her college courses that I knew that she has been taking.
I would of loved the opportunity to stop and talk to her, but I don't know her that well and I had a limited amount of time to get to work. I finished up my transaction and walked back to my car to head to work. Her words, "Life sucks" stuck in my head. I got back into my car with a heavy heart for what ever she might be facing that would cause her to have such and outlook. Other times that I had seen her, she usually seemed rather cheerful. I knew that something pretty heavy was going on in her life. I still think about her and hopefully I will have an opportunity to talk with her sometime soon.
As I was driving to work, I began to get uncomfortable with the words, "Life sucks" being in my head. Life doesn't suck. Life is beautiful. We have so many thing to be grateful for. I often tell people, "Any day above ground is a good day." I have worked with the public for so many years, that sometimes I am sorry that I ask them, "How are you today?" All too often I hear the tragic stories of how bad their life is. Life is not tragic. Life is an amazing adventure.
Sure, there are moments in our life that seem to suck. We all have those moments in life, and sometimes it seems like that happen one after another. But life it's self is wonderful. Life is full of doom and gloom when that is where our focus is. I'm not saying that we should ignore the negative in our lives. But don't dwell on it. If it is something that we have the capacity to change, look for solutions and make the necessary changes. Those things that we cannot change, don't deserve our energies. Life doesn't suck, but the situations in life can suck. Our life is not encapsulated into that moment that sucks. We have a life before that moment and we will have moments beyond it. We had moments before this current moment of suckiness. They didn't stop us, we were able to have good moments past it. What makes us think that this moment will be different?
The habit of focusing our energies on the positive aspects of our lives is a learned process. If you are one of those kinds of people who mostly see the negatives in life, it will be a tougher habit to create. I was one of those kinds of people a few years ago and it was really difficult to break that old habit. But every time that I caught myself thinking a negative thought, I replaced it with a positive one. Sure, in the beginning, the negative ones we much louder and stronger than my positive ones. But with time and practice, slowly but surely, the positive ones began to overpower the negative ones. Now, the negative thoughts, have to work really hard to find a place in my thoughts. My energies and focus are all directed toward all the things in my life that are adding to my happiness not taking away.
How will you choose to perceive your day? Will you choose to only see the negatives, or will you make a conscience effort to find the positive things in your life and focus on them?
Adapt, Improvise, And Overcome to become your very best.
