Bad things are going to happen in life, we all know that.  They vary in magnitude, but they are inevitable.  The long term impact they have on our lives however, is at least somewhat within our control.

There are people who can face major adversity and seem unfazed, and there are those who collapse if their toast is too dark.  As I have talked about in other posts, I believe the key difference between these two extremes is, for the most part, attitude.  It’s how we choose to react.

When things go wrong – major or minor – how we choose to respond internally will greatly influence how well we cope with it, and I believe, how quickly we overcome the problem and are able to move on.

Here are a few suggestions I have for “adjusting” your attitude when bad things happen:

1.) Count your blessings – focusing on the good things in your life will do wonders for putting things in perspective and helping you be positive about a situation.  We all have things to be thankful for, no matter what we may be going through.  Take some time and think about the things in your life that are going right, and it will lessen the impact of the things that aren’t.

2.) Help others – Being kind and helping others with their problems gets your mind off the tough times you may be going through.  Reach out to your community and find a need, then pitch in.  It often takes little effort to be kind, and it makes a huge difference, in your life and in the life of someone else.

3.) Rethink the magnitude – There are times when you simply need to sit down and realize, this problem really isn’t as big or bad as it looks.  Taking the time to look at the situation and the potential outcome will often help you see that the issue at hand is not nearly as insurmountable as you thought.

4.) Talk about it - Go to someone you trust and talk about the problem.  Sharing a burden with someone who cares about you often lessens the load.  If you feel like you don’t have anyone to turn to, you can always contact me, I am willing to listen.

5.) Change the scenery - Changing the view can help change your perspective.  Get up and go somewhere beautiful.  If you can’t get there on your own, call someone to take you.  If it isn’t possible to leave where you are, then use your imagination and think about a place of peace and beauty.  Even this little mental vacation can make a world of difference.

This is by no means an exhaustive list, it’s just a start.  Now I want to hear form you.  Leave a comment and tell me how you maintain a positive attitude when things go wrong.  You never know who you may help by taking the time to share your thoughts…

You're SUPER!

We have all met them – shiny happy people who never have a care in the world, and deem it necessary to spread their “joy” to everyone around them. They stand in front of you with their hair on fire, and are just ecstatic that they don’t ever have to worry about their ears getting cold ever ever again…

That isn’t what I am about.  I am not Mr. Marty HappyPants.  I do not believe that every steaming pile of…pudding…has a hidden treasure in it if “we just look hard enough”.

That being said, I do strongly believe that how you decide to react to things in life and in business will determine how well you weather the challenges that will surely come along.  You will have problems, you will be insulted, hurt, even betrayed.  But you have a choice about how it impacts you and how much of it you carry with you as you move forward.  The heavier the baggage you decide to carry, the more difficult the journey will be.

This may seem a bit simplistic.  You may ask, “what about the person that has experienced <insert horrible life changing event here>?”  To this I say “stop it, this is my blog”.  I’m kidding.

You are correct, some people go through horrible things.  People have been victimized in almost unimaginable ways, by people that I personally believe are truly evil.  But I believe they still have a choice to make.  Understand, I realize their lives will be forever changed by these types of events and my heart aches for them.  No one should ever be victimized, and I don’t have the audacity to say “suck it up and move on”.  However, I will say that they can choose to turn the pain inward and let it eat them alive, or they can chose to turn that pain into passion and use it to make some semblance of good come out of the horror they suffered.  Thankfully, for most of us, we will never know what it is like to live after being hurt like that.

So this blog is about you and I, and how we choose to deal with life and career.  What I hope to show you here, is that we make choices about how we react to the events in our lives, and that it impacts us, our loved ones, and our success on a daily basis. In my ever so humble opinion, there are two basic types of people in the world.  Those that live their lives based on what has happened to them, and those that live their lives in spite of it.

I hope that by talking about these things, we will all leave the table a little better equipped to make positive decisions in our lives.  Please leave your comments or questions.  I would love to hear what you think, and you, dear reader, will help shape this site into what it needs to be.