Wednesday, July 07, 2010
Always A Great Day
This afternoon I went to record a radio spot and stopped to take this photo of the door on my way out. It has written on it: "Welcome! It's always a great day at the Eagle Media Center."
When you go into the lobby this is the first thing you see. I wonder what kind of impact that has on people - even subconsciously. If it's always a great day there you probably expect your experience to be great on some level.
Just this morning I was engaged in a facebook conversation about my general "perkiness" level. I was explaining that I grew up with a mother who believed if you were going to be interacting with people you should be pleasant about it. It's good training for life.
When I wake up in the morning my first thought is, "Wow... okay... cool... I woke up... I'm still breathing, thinking, talking, walking, functioning... nothing bad has happened overnight to me or anyone I love... thank you, God." When you're grateful for these things, it feels as though a good 90% plus of your day is taken care of. These rest is just gravy.
People sometimes ask if I don't ever feel down. I certainly do. But being happy is a decision I make every day. I choose to find the positive parts of a situation whenever possible. I've discovered that focusing on the negative doesn't really do much to address it, and it wears me out. Finding the positive may not do much to fix the problem, but it doesn't hurt anything, and I feel better on the other side of things. As far as I'm concerned that's reason enough.
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4 comments:
I'm mostly a positive person who came into the world that way, I think. BUT somewhere along the road I lost some of this and it took a lot of difficult things to remind me that dwelling on all the bad/scary/future/past, etc. just plain took away whatever energy I had for the day and since I had so little to begin with I decided that ditching the negative stuff whenever possible was not an option...it was a necessity! And, actually, being in a more positive mode allowed me to think of solutions instead of just going round and round in my head about my troubles. Although I did discover that if the brain chemicals are not able to cooperate with my attempt at "sunny-ness" then I needed to be patient with myself and just try again tomorrow. (Usually) nothing is ever simple....
Research shows there is a genetic component - that we seem to have a "set point" of happiness. But, it's incredibly flexible with attitude/training, which I think is really cool. Of all the things to be able to learn - being happy is a great one!
I reacted to the sign on the front door as a realist. I am sure that it's *not* always a great day at Eagle Media Center and saying it is doesn't make it so.
My second reaction was the same as when someone I don't know calls me
"friend": I reach for my wallet to make sure it's still there.
I understand, and believe in, "fake it to make it," but the sign slogan sounds like something an Amway salesman would say.
Science is on the side of "fake it till you make it." It may not always be a great day, but it's probably more likely to be if you see that as you walk in than "this place sucks." At least I hope so.
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