How has your day been? How is it going to be? If we had the
choice, we'd no doubt want each day to be phenomenal - exciting,
enriching, meaningful, joyful and pleasurable. But are you
exercising that choice? Do you intentionally and consciously choose
your attitude each day?
Most of us tend to allow external circumstances or other people to
choose your attitude for us. As in, whether our day is a good one
or not is dictated by whether we get up on time, whether the kids
give us any trouble, whether the traffic is agreeable, whether the
boss is in a good mood, whether another big, thankless task is
dumped on us, whether our spouse or partner greets us with a
smile.
When you choose to live this way, you are allowing external
circumstances to control your mood and disposition. This is fine as
long as everything runs smoothly in your life. But that doesn't
happen often, does it? Life is hardly predictable - accidents
happen, machines break down, kids have their tantrums, workloads
become seemingly unmanageable. And when you finally get home in
anticipation of a tender hug and a sympathetic ear, you find
instead another frustrated and angry person who can't wait to dump
all the day's tribulations onto your already tired soul.
What happens then? What happens when you have a lousy day?
You see, the problem with not choosing a positive attitude everyday
is that we run the risk of getting a negative one imposed on us at
the whim of other people and situations. Our mood is then at the
mercy of the volatile. But although we can't dictate the weather,
we certainly can choose how we react to it.
So what if we claim our right to consciously choose our
attitude?
Well, we'd invite more joy into our lives. We often overestimate
the influence the outside world has on our mood - like if we
encounter a surly cashier at the cafe, we feel offended and
ourselves become sullen and rude, as if to pay forward this
unbearable debt of bad manners. When really, the moment's tension
can be neutralised instantly if we choose not to be affected by
someone else's thoughtlessness.
By choosing a positive attitude each day, we attract more positive
experiences into our lives. The quality of each experience often
determines the quality of the next experience - I'm sure you've
been in situations where your plans get thrown off completely
because something went wrong. But when things go awry, you can also
choose to move on without a scratch, thus effecting a better
outcome or future experience.
