Positive Attitude - Choice Or Chance?

Play along with me for a moment…

What would your reaction be if you just won $25,000 on a game show?

You’d probably say you felt thrilled, elated, or excited.

You would, huh? What if I told you more about the circumstances involved…

You were doing great and had progressed to the last round. You had already won $500,000, but you chose to risk that amount to go for the million dollar question. Unfortunately, you got it wrong and ended up with “only” $25,000.

Now how would you feel? Disappointed, mad at yourself, and just plain awful, right?

So why do you feel so bad if you are walking away with $25,000 more than you had before?

You feel awful because of how you interpret that event. If you focus on what might have been, you will feel very unhappy. But with conscious effort, you can choose to focus on the $25,000 you won rather than the $475,000 you lost.

Here is a great truth of life – what determines our happiness is not so much what happens to us as how we feel about it. Our reaction determines whether we interpret events as positive or negative.

I read an interesting article about a study showing that Americans tend to be happier than people in countries such as Japan and Korea, but are also more likely to be unhappy when negative events happen. Apparently many Americans have gotten so used to being well-off and happy that they get upset at even everyday hassles and troubles.

This is where positive thinking can be so powerful. You can train your mind to stay positive in every situation, provided you are willing to look at situations differently.

With practice and determination you can change your old, negative way of thinking. So if you want to be happier choose to start thinking more positively today!nn© Karen Wheeler Hall – All Rights Reserved