By T. Jacira Paolino
Which are you? An upward spiral, or a downward spiral?
One day, a man left his office for a business meeting. He was running a bit late, and there was lots of traffic. Of course, he ended up behind the slowest car on the highway, which made him even later. When he arrived, there were no parking places nearby – he ended up parking in the farthest corner of the parking lot. It was a super-hot, sticky, humid day and by the time he walked into the building he was dripping in sweat, only to find out that the meeting was cancelled. The secretary apologized because the person he was supposed to meet with had to leave suddenly because her daughter was sick at school.
How would you react to this situation? Would you be upset? Or would you take it in stride?
The man took a deep breath, and said, “Please tell her I hope her daughter is feeling better soon. Ask her to call me to reschedule.” He turned around and walked out of the building. The sun was shining, the breeze was blowing, and he wasn’t stuck in a cubicle in his office.
He chose to look at the positive side of the matter. What good would it have done to be mad? It wouldn’t have made his meeting happen, and it would have wasted more time. Instead, he chose to look at the situation as a positive, instead of a negative.
He took his time strolling back to his car at the far end of the parking lot, and he took his time driving back to work. Life is good! He got out of his office for a couple hours, and someone paid him for it. Why complain?
In life you can choose to look at the positive in everything, or the negative.
We all know those people who walk around with clouds over their heads. You can choose to not be one of those people. It’s up to you, but it isn’t easy!
We are surrounded by negativity. You really must make a conscious choice to be positive. You must do that over and over before it becomes your natural default way of dealing with things. But eventually it does, and then life doesn’t weigh on you. It becomes natural to walk around with a smile on your face, every day as you walk out the door. You can teach yourself to focus on the positive.
It’s up to you. It may take some effort, but you can do it! You can become an upward spiral!
