Life throws many surprises at us. It is up to us to choose our reaction to these surprises.
Choose? you may ask...yes, choose.
Success and happiness in life both depend on our attitude towards the changes and surprises we face. Even the situations that appear worst to us may not appear to be that bad to someone else, or even matter that much to you when you look at your life overall.
Most disappointments in our life appear bigger than they really are when you look at them up close and in that snapshot of time. Maybe your child didn’t get an A on a test or he didn’t make it to the college of your first choice. Maybe you didn’t get a promotion this year or your peer just became your new boss. Even worse could be if you or your spouse just lost their job or you made a bad investment/career decision that set you back a few years.
In any of these situations, you have a choice to make. A choice to embrace the outcome, with the attitude that there will be another day and another chance, or a choice to treat it like it is the end of the world.
You have the power to make this choice. Your choice of how to treat this outcome will play a bigger role in how successful or happy you will be in life than the actual outcome itself.
A major source of stress and unhappiness comes from the feeling that you don’t have control over your life. It doesn’t matter whether you had a role to play in the outcome or you were simply a victim of the situation, but simply believing that you could have done something different and could do something different in the future, gives you control over how you treat each situation. Realizing this is a choice you have control over, gives you hope and allows you another chance to get it right.
While it seems that life is full of highs and lows like a typical stock market chart, over the long term, these daily peaks and valleys don’t matter as much. Focus on the big picture, and forget the nittygritty.
Remember, nobody gets it right all the time. Success comes to people who make more right choices than wrong ones and more importantly, recover quickly from wrong ones.
Your positive attitude can lead to enthusiasm about life. And enthusiasm is contagious. It has a tremendous effect on everyone around you. It will draw more positive and enthusiastic people around you, which will in turn boost your own attitude towards life.
Your attitude is the biggest asset you have. Manage it as if your life depended on it, because it does!
