In the few years of experience I have, I've noticed how attitude is everything. That's a phrase that gets thrown around a lot, but I doubt that people really let that sink in. I firmly believe that attitude entirely governs your experience on this life.
There are two people that jump into my mind that prove this point to me. One of them is consistently, persistently happy, despite the flood of trials that seems to follow her like her own personal rain cloud. Despite personal health issues, disease, surgery, her mother's death due to cancer, and various other challenges, I've rarely seen her without a smile. She takes life head on, and actively shapes her life into something positive.
The other person I think of has been blessed in so many ways. She has it all; a good home, a loving family, a wonderful college education, etc. Yet she always finds something wrong with her life and fixates on that, rather than the positive. Her attitude drains the joy and energy from the incredible experiences she has.
I've been reflecting on this for the past few weeks. It's not because I've been going through trials, interestingly enough, but because of the opposite. On the contrary, my life has been absolutely perfect. I have incredible people in my life, I know what I'm doing with my life and I love it, and everything is falling into place. What I realized is that I'm not marginally happier now than I was when my life wasn't a bed of roses. Because I don't let my circumstances dictate how grateful I am for the life I lead, but rather choose to be grateful for every experience I'm given, I find joy in every day. That includes the days that throw those nasty curve-balls.
Gratitude enables me to make more of my life because I'm living my life with my Heavenly Father in mind. With this in mind, I challenge myself to write a list of 20 things I'm grateful for every night (no repeats). Not only will this help me be grateful for the day I've had, but will instill a spirit of gratitude for the coming days as well.
Gratitude enables me to make more of my life because I'm living my life with my Heavenly Father in mind. With this in mind, I challenge myself to write a list of 20 things I'm grateful for every night (no repeats). Not only will this help me be grateful for the day I've had, but will instill a spirit of gratitude for the coming days as well.
I really like this article that you wrote, especially because everyone goes through hard things, it just depends on how they take it that will dictate their happiness. Many want to be happy because of their circumstances, they want the joys of like, luxury, friends, etc. However, those who base their happiness on their circumstances will never find happiness, they will always find something to blame and something to complain about. It becomes a never-ending cycle of want, but never finding an end.
ReplyDeleteThose who find joy and happiness in spite of their circumstances, then in every stage of life they will be happy. These types of people are those who end up being successful and find the most joy above all. Though it is hard to separate circumstances and happiness sometimes, as we work at it we will get better at it.
Thanks for the post, loved it!
We've been talking about happiness a lot in one of my RecM classes, so I can definitely relate to this post. One thing in particular that stood out to me was a theory proposed by a well-known positive psychologist. According to him, 50% of our happiness can be attributed to our genetic predispositions, only 10% to circumstances, and 40% to our voluntary control. I think the examples of your two friends really illustrate this point, that circumstances have a relatively low effect on our happiness. Sometimes it's hard to see that we really do have control over our happiness, and that we can choose to be happy. Attitude really is everything!
ReplyDeleteI learned this from one of my church leaders. No matter how hard things get in life, we can always make them more bareable with a good attitude. Bad attitudes don't get things done, and are not productive. Thanks for the post.
ReplyDeleteYEP.
ReplyDeleteA decision to change the way I look at things has a HUGE impact on how I actually feel about them. For me though, I have found that if I am overly optimistic - to the point where I ignore the everyday stressors that are a part of life, there is a backlog of anxiety that needs to come out. And if I don't do anything about it, it will come out involuntarily and aggressively. SO. I do my best to be optimistic and also real at the same time. And as I strive to look for the good, I find it.