Lets start with the old cliché is the glass half empty or is
the glass half full? This is the essence of this article -
because the glass is always at the halfway mark, no matter what
the situation is!
Take for example this morning. I woke up feeling tired and
exhausted. When I finally made it to the bathroom I was greeted
by a zit on my nose that was so bright and shiny it could have
helped aircraft to navigate. My eyes looked like someone had
spent the night filling the bags underneath them with coal. I
was not a pretty sight to even the most forgiving personality.
I had a choice of crawling back into bed, feeling depressed and
sorry for myself or singing my head off in the shower and
dancing my way to the kettle. So was my glass half full or half
empty?
I realized at that moment that I had the power to decide what
kind of a day I was going to have, the same power I have to
choose the type of life I will have. There were a thousand
things I could focus on either way.
Yeah I could do depression today. God knows I deserved to. I had
earned it. It was raining, there were unpaid bills, one of my
friends had been driving me mad, I had exams to study for,
...wow I really deserved a blue day.
And then for every negative thought I could think of a thousand
positives; the reservoirs were filling up, the farmers were
getting essential water flow, I am alive, I am in good health, I
have great friends, I love running my business, I have books to
read, things to learn, I could go on and on.
And so I took my halfway filled glass out for a test drive. I
phoned one friend and told them that I was feeling down and I
phoned another and told them that I was feeling vibrant and
energetic. The strangest thing happened, both magnified my
feelings! My first friend validated why I should be feeling down
and said things like 'well no wonder, you have been working very
hard lately, poor you, etc' and the second friend said 'well no
wonder, you have been working very hard lately, good for you'!
So now I have a strategy for when I think I might feel like
having a blue day. I contact people and tell them that I am
having a great day and feeling fantastic. The reaction is always
one of two things - they either magnify the great feeling - or
they miscalibrate me and tell me how miserable they are feeling.
When I hear someone else doing miserable it gives me an instant
uplift to my spirits. Listen to someone else do miserable and
you'll get exactly what I mean by this. It can be a real chore
to hear someone else doing miserable.
On reflection the funniest thing for me was just how hard I had
worked to wake up looking that awful that morning. It was the
result of a dedicated evening of connecting and enjoying the
company of friends and strangers. I worked hard to have that
amount of fun, drinking a bit too much, eating foods that
weren't particularly part of my action plan for long-term
nutrition, health and vitality and staying up a weeney bit too
late.
So was my glass full or half empty? Would I focus on the great
evening with friends the night before or would I focus on how I
looked and felt today as a result of that evening?
It was absolutely going to be focusing on the night before and
how much I had enjoyed it. The minute I reframed my thoughts and
began to think that way, I instantly felt more vibrant and
energetic. In fact I couldn't wait until the next time that I
would wake up feeling exhausted with bad skin and heavy eyes.
|
