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| The hits keep on coming, but in the end it's all about attitude. |
This past weekend, we packed up the trusty old minivan with all our camping gear and spent two beautiful, sun-filled days at Elephant Butte Lake. Swimming, building sand castles, roasting marshmallows around the campfire created smiles and good memories for the entire family. Everything, including setting up the tent went smoothly. Or at least, when I think of the weekend, I remember everything going smoothly. In actuality, it took us quite a bit of time to get the tent up, we had a flat tire for no apparent reason, we forgot a few essential items and our transmission on our car went out on the way home. Nonetheless, thinking on the weekend, we all enjoyed ourselves, and our moods upon being deposited from the tow truck to our home reflected our enjoyment. I should have been upset or angry or at least irritated, but none of those feelings consumed me. I came home grateful to be here and grateful that we had enjoyed ourselves on our mini-vacation.
I think attitude and outlook determine how a person views adversity as well as how effectively he or she handles setbacks in one's life. Being optimistic and remaining chill during times of tension or stress allows a person to remain flexible, creative, and open to opportunity. Most importantly, it minimizes the chances for the situation getting worse. A positive attitude can stop adversity in it's tracks or at least slow down the chain of events enough to allow a person to get a handle on things. Being wound up and succumbing to anger or irritation only intensifies the negativity of a situation and can lead to bad decision-making, saying things you don't mean, and generally creating worse circumstances. Think of how many times you have been mad about something and then everything just snowballs into an even bigger mess because of things said or done in anger. It happens quite frequently.
In every situation when things go wrong, there lies one crucial moment when a person can choose to become angrier, more frustrated, and more bitter or when he or she can choose to just stop, breathe, and remain calm. Most people just blow by that choice and head into full-on mad. And rarely does anything good get accomplished when it is done from a point of negativity. It's a conscious decision to deal with things from a positive mindset and it takes practice to switch into a calm, centered place from which to operate. It helps immensely, however.
People who are optimistic basically roll with the punches and come back stronger than before. They take care of problems efficiently and quickly because they rebound from setbacks faster. They see opportunities rather than obstacles. Yesterday's breakdown of the van on the highway was an opportunity for the kids to see some scenery up close that they never paid attention to before. It also allowed them to spend two and a half hours of quality time just talking with me and their father. We told them our stories of breakdowns and things going awry while on vacation which they and we enjoyed. They also got to watch the van being loaded onto the tow truck and had a riotously good time speeding down the highway with the grungiest, yet funniest driver I have ever encountered.
Sure, it's going to cost more money than we have to fix the transmission and I absolutely could have gotten home a few hours earlier to get a jump start on unpacking and the mountains of laundry, but getting to spend some quiet time with the kiddos in an unusual situation also had it's benefits, happy advantages that I would totally not availed myself of if everything went as it was supposed to. Twists and turns in life make things exciting, even those curves which are seemingly bad. Everything has a good side, a silver lining, a positive spin. I, for one, am glad that I was either born with or developed the habit of seeing the good in all situations and things. It is not a "pollyanna' or "rose-colored-glasses" mentality. It is a healthy, happy mindset that allows me to enjoy my life and the people in it to the very best of my ability and I am positive this quality will serve me well for the remainder of my optimistic, upbeat days.
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