Are you the captain of your own ship or is someone else doing the driving? We like to think that we are in control of our lives, yet how often do we find ourselves in the emotional ditch over something that has happened during the day? Have you ever come home and told everyone, “I had a really bad day today”? What makes our days good or bad anyway?
It is hard to accept, but nobody can make us have a bad day. Whenever we allow someone else or some event in our lives to ruin our day we have given our power away. Granted there are times when huge disasters strike our lives and one would be inclined to categorize them as “bad days”, but by-in-large the things we attribute to making a day good or bad are simply our reactions to them. No one can make us angry. We have just chosen to get mad. No one can rob us of our joy unless we allow them to.
A while back I was driving down the freeway and the thought crossed my mind that this wasn’t turning out to be such a good day. The thought then struck me that I was choosing to proceed with a bad day. Why not have a good day in spite of the fact that certain things weren’t happening the way I would like them to? It gave me pause for thought, but the choice became crystal clear, why would I choose a bad day when a good day was just as much a possibility as a bad one?
It’s funny, but we tend to take credit when things go well and we tend to cast blame when they go the other way. In reality, we are equally responsible for our attitudes and actions. Whenever we blame someone or something for our emotions and moods we give our power away.
We assign meaning to the events in our lives. This is good. This is bad. This is sad. This makes me mad. On and on we go with a meaning for everything that happens in life. We could just as well assign a different meaning to things, or even perhaps, assign no meaning at all. Some things simply happen. We don’t have to assign a positive or negative meaning to them. Sometimes we just have to get through things. Doing so with the best attitude possible makes life a lot easier to handle.
So next time you are tempted to have a bad day, just say you’ll pass and choose to have a better day instead. If you end up having a bad day at least take comfort in the fact that you chose to have a bad day and you succeeded. That’s something worth celebrating!
It is hard to accept, but nobody can make us have a bad day. Whenever we allow someone else or some event in our lives to ruin our day we have given our power away. Granted there are times when huge disasters strike our lives and one would be inclined to categorize them as “bad days”, but by-in-large the things we attribute to making a day good or bad are simply our reactions to them. No one can make us angry. We have just chosen to get mad. No one can rob us of our joy unless we allow them to.
A while back I was driving down the freeway and the thought crossed my mind that this wasn’t turning out to be such a good day. The thought then struck me that I was choosing to proceed with a bad day. Why not have a good day in spite of the fact that certain things weren’t happening the way I would like them to? It gave me pause for thought, but the choice became crystal clear, why would I choose a bad day when a good day was just as much a possibility as a bad one?
It’s funny, but we tend to take credit when things go well and we tend to cast blame when they go the other way. In reality, we are equally responsible for our attitudes and actions. Whenever we blame someone or something for our emotions and moods we give our power away.
We assign meaning to the events in our lives. This is good. This is bad. This is sad. This makes me mad. On and on we go with a meaning for everything that happens in life. We could just as well assign a different meaning to things, or even perhaps, assign no meaning at all. Some things simply happen. We don’t have to assign a positive or negative meaning to them. Sometimes we just have to get through things. Doing so with the best attitude possible makes life a lot easier to handle.
So next time you are tempted to have a bad day, just say you’ll pass and choose to have a better day instead. If you end up having a bad day at least take comfort in the fact that you chose to have a bad day and you succeeded. That’s something worth celebrating!
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