Tuesday; September 19
After decades of dealing
with a hypochondriac for a father a woman finally had had enough. One day, as her dad regaled her with yet
another illness, the daughter said, “OK Dad, I get it. So what would you like written on your
tombstone?”. The father, with a sly
smile grinned and responded, “See, I told you I was sick.”.
Have you ever been around
someone who makes a habit of being negative?
Let me ask another – more pointed question – are we sucking the life out
of the people around us by always being negative? Several of us excuse our negativity by saying
that we are just being realists, but the truth of the matter is that pessimism
is exhausting! No, we don’t always have
to ignore the issues, but when that’s our only focus, we are going to have
problems. Interestingly, negativism
doesn’t just influence others, it can also produce our own internal issues. Pessimism is sort of like a self-fulfilling
prophecy – if we are focused on the problems, they will continue to mount to
the point that they will engulf us. If
we live in our own negative world long enough, we will begin to take on the
persona of a victim or a failure. No,
optimism won’t automatically help us overcome our deficiencies, but negativity
is apt to hardwire them in our brain forever.
What do we see in
life? What are we expecting from our
future? We may not have a choice as to
what life hands us, but we can choose the attitude that we will use to confront
it.
Think About It!