I think one of the most difficult things for me to do every day is to have a positive mindset. It is so easy to let the frustrations of the day build up and allow oneself to be negative so it is very important to intentionally be positive throughout the day.
I know life is not all roses and sunshine and I don’t mean that you should ignore or dismiss those things but one can accept them for what they are and choose to not allow those things to pull you down. Again I know this is an area that I work on daily because I haven’t developed that automatic response in dealing with the bad things that happen.
Easier said than done right? Let me give you some examples. Maybe you are driving somewhere and all of a sudden the traffic slows down or stops because of construction or an accident ahead. Sometimes your default reaction is to get frustrated, upset or whatever emotion comes out at that time. Yes it is ok to allow that for a short period of time but it really isn’t productive to let that rule you in that situation. Instead focus on what needs done to make things better. Start making a plan. What do you need to next? Does your navigation program help you choose an alternate route? I’ve had mine recommend an alternate route in the middle of my travels. Maybe you need to pull off somewhere and notify places that you may be late. I also try to find the positive once I’ve thought of how I can improve the situation I’m in. In the case of there having been an accident ahead that’s caused delays I start by praying for those that were involved in it, then I realize how thankful I am that I wasn’t in it myself. Often, if I’m later than I want to be leaving my house on a trip, instead of allowing myself to be mad about what caused me to leave later, I think that maybe that delay kept me from being at a place at a certain time where I might have been in an accident. I know in the past for me this has been true. A few times I left late only to come upon an accident site and realized that it probably happened at a time, when had I left on time, I may have been a victim of it instead of just stuck in traffic in the aftermath of it.
Choosing to make action plans and thinking about how to improve a bad situation or how it might have positively affected another outcome sets you up to focus on the positives of the day. I also believe that our thoughts and words have power.
There are many Bible verses that support this view. One of my favorites is the following.
“Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him.” Mark 11:23
It is another reason why I believe it is so important to be positive on a daily basis. If I choose to allow the bad in life to bog me down then it is entirely possible that it will create a domino effect making more and more situations to be more negative than positive in my life. I don’t know about you but that’s not the life I want for myself or my family.
I know there will be some of you that read this and think that you can’t influence what happens. To some extent that is true. Your car will probably need brakes at some point because things do wear and break down. However, maybe it might happen when you are in a better place to deal with it either financially or in a certain period of time like long before that vacation trip or after you get back. Also, does it really hurt to trust that a positive mindset may make your life better in some way? Why stay in that place of frustration and stress? What does it really benefit? Really it does more harm than good.
As I said, I struggle with this every day. I have come to the crossroads many times where I’ve had to make an intentional choice to either allow the negative emotions and situations rule me or take the reins myself and steer away from the negative and choose to be positive. I would like to say that I’ve conquered this and always choose to take charge and control over my emotions but it still leans toward 50/50 that I do so but I refuse to give up on myself.
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