""You can't have a positive life with a negative mind"

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Let me tell you how true that this statement really is...

Yesterday, if you read my blog, you read about my business and how I wasn't quite getting the number of people I wanted on tours but I was really happy that I have had more tours than last year and I wasn't going to focus on the negative side of the tours not filling up as much, but I AM going to focus on how it has improved and that even when I don't have tours, it's an opportunity to have a day off and enjoy life and focus on the positive. I set off doing just that yesterday. I decided that since I had no tours, I took the time to write my blog, eat a nice healthy clean breakfast and head out to dodgeball. I showed up and dodgeball had been canceled and I hadn't seen that online. I sat and chatted with a friend from the rec center there. As I was doing so, I got a phone call. Someone booked a tour! Imagine that! No, it was not a giant group, just two people. However, every tour is an opportunity for exposure, growth and practice. That is how I look at my tours - they are a learning and growing experience. 

Now, I could have been all down in the dumps yesterday, completely frustrated with how things are going and beating myself up...but why do that when I can enjoy life and take it as it comes? One tour at a time. I'm sure I have said this many times before, but let me reiterate it for you all. People are not just MADE happy. There aren't human beings who are just a little luckier than others and are given the gift of happiness. Being happy is a CHOICE. Even happy people have negative occurrences in their lives, obstacles, or things that bring them down. HAPPY people however, CHOOSE to wake up every morning and find something to be happy about and for which to be grateful. I have to WORK to be happy. I CHOOSE being happy. I could find plenty of things to be sad about, but I CHOOSE not to. It's a choice, it's not just a state of being gifted to some and not others. 

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I look at my grandfather and grandmother as prime examples of choosing happiness. My grandfather is now in a nursing home, my grandmother having passed a couple of months ago. Nevertheless, grandpa is happy! Yes, he has his down moments like the rest of us, but he doesn't let it consume him. He chooses to be happy and thankful for his blessings every day. Nearly every time that I go and visit my grandfather he thanks me for visiting him. He says he is so blessed and so thankful to have such a wonderful family that comes and visits him. I tell grandpa that no, in fact, we are the lucky ones...to have him! My grandmother and grandfather didn't have an easy life. My grandpa was a successful farmer because he worked extremely hard but they didn't start with a lot of money or even their own land. He chose happiness and hard work and when things got tough, he didn't let it get him down. Grandma had difficult things handed to her as well. Grandma got diabetes in later life. Guess what? She didn't even do the classes they recommended her to do! She said, tell me what I have to do and I'll do it. She always had control over her diabetes and really watched what she ate. My grandma also suffered a terrible car crash when I was 15 that left her in a halo in the hospital for months and with fused vertebrae. She was in her 70s when that happened and it reduced her quality of life. She was unable to continue doing seamstress work that she loved to do (and was mighty good at) but she never complained. In fact, she would continue crafting, finding other things that should could do that were smaller projects. I would frequently see her rubbing her neck and say, "Is your neck sore, Grandma?" She would say, "Oh yeah, but it's always sore. It's fine." But never once would she complain about her neck on her own. Grandma and Grandpa always chose to focus on the positive and that's what I choose too!

The other part of all of this is that as a positive person, you have to choose WHO you want to be in your life and who you don't. Do the people in your life contribute positively to it? Do they lift you up? Do they support your dreams and goals? If you cannot answer "yes" to those questions, than do those people belong in your life? I know that in the past, I have had to let friendships or relationships go because they were not contributing positively to my life and weren't headed in the direction that I wanted to go. This isn't always an easy choice. In fact, it's usually one of the most difficult decisions one will make. But who you have around you and if they are contributing to your life positively, is an important thing. I have found that when I have let the negative aspects of my life go, it has made more space for positive ones. More positively people have filled those voids and have come my way to lift me up and cheer me on. That makes the difficult choice of having to let some people or things go, all the greater.

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Today, I'd like to challenge everyone to CHOOSE positive thinking and a positive outlook. See how it changes the rest of your day. Focus on what you currently HAVE and not what you WANT. Live in the today, be thankful for the blessings around you.

What are the positive things that you are thankful for today?