Gripe or Grin?

Imagine it’s Monday morning and you’re running late. You’re eating your muffin on the go, while crumbs are dropping all over your clean car. You get to work and spill your coffee all over your clothes and you no longer have any coffee to drink. It’s a sad case of the Mondays, right? Now, ask yourself, would I still be smiling? The answer is probably something like, “No, are you crazy?” What if I told you someone else in the world, probably even nearby, is dealing with something worse than muffin crumbs and spilled coffee. Don’t get me wrong, it’s definitely frustrating but not grounds to ruin your day. Just like the saying, “Don’t cry over spilled milk,” which is a reminder not to worry about something that has already happened and that you cannot change.

Too often we get caught up in the “daily grump” as I call it, where you get so use to complaining about things that have to be done, about something that happened yesterday or last week, that it becomes an unintentional bad habit. There is nothing worse than waking up feeling like life is rough just because you have to go to work, the grocery, drive the kids to practice, or you heard someone was talking about you. In the grand scheme of things, those “problems” are so trivial. Be thankful you have a job, you have money for groceries, and your kids are healthy enough to play a sport.

The only way to overcome your feelings of discontent is to remember, anything you put your energy into, gets all of your attention, and negative energy will suck you dry! Using your energy for things that are stressful puts you in a position to become emotionally and mentally exhausted. If you continue to put your energy into fixing what has already happened, or what can’t be fixed, that’s going to result in a lot of wasted energy. You also must remember, things could always be worse and no person or circumstance can ruin your happiness without your approval. If you choose anger, you will be angry, if you choose sadness, you will be sad, but if you choose happy, you will be happy… you get the point.

Last, you attract what you are, not what you want. So if you want to be miserable, it’s easy to do and misery will gladly become your company. If your focus is still on that spilled cup of coffee, then you have wasted a lot of time and energy on something other than what can make you enjoy your day. So, next time you think you have every reason to frown, smile anyway. When the art of attraction becomes part of your daily life, you will become more grateful, more energetic, and overall more happy. Speak the things you want for your life instead of the things you don’t want. Some days you just have to look at the bright side of things and create your own sunshine even when the world seems down on your luck.