Happy Is as Happy Does
Yesterday, I talked about keeping a positive attitude. Keeping a positive attitude and possessing a sense of optimism can not only help you through your work day, but also help you be a happier person!
Since this all pertains to attitude, this is perhaps the simplest (yet, also the hardest) step to attaining a sense of happiness. All you need to do is change your mind! Be determined to be a happier person. Brush aside the negative thoughts.
Of course, that is often easier said than done. The pressures at work may make it hard to maintain your positive attitude, especially if it’s not something you’ve worked at–I mean, really worked at–maintaining.
Just realize that you do not always have control over what life throws your way. You do not always have control over what projects are going to be thrown in your lap in the morning.
But, you do have control over your thoughts. You have control over your attitude and, yes, you can resist letting others control your own mood! Whose mind is it anyway?
If you find you can’t maintain a positive attitude for long, don’t get discouraged. Practice! For some people, a positive attitude is something that may come naturally. Or, it may seem to come naturally when it was cultivated during their childhood. In any case, like anything else, some people are naturals and some are not, but practice can compensate! If a positive attitude doesn’t come naturally to you, then you just need to spend more time practicing it!
Start out slow, if you like. The important thing is persistence and determination. Try maintaining a positive attitude for just five minutes a day. Once you’ve managed that on a routine basis, work on extending it to ten minutes a day. Then fifteen minutes. Keep at it until your positive attitude becomes second nature to you.
Aside from real depression or other issues that may require professional aid or medications, there’s no reason that you cannot be a happier person, at work and at play!
Happy is as happy does! So, be happy, and have a great day!
I like your tip of practicing for short periods of times–minutes–as a way of looking more positively at life and its happenings. Another thing I do is to look at problems–like a story I’m working on–and think it’s hopeless, I just can’t get a handle on this. Then I remind myself to think my problem through, consider all possibilities, and then let it all go. By then next day or so, I have found a solution!
As far as writing goes, sometimes it helps to put it away for a day or so and not think about it. Sometimes your brain needs a little rest.
And, sometimes it’ll get put away from weeks, months, and then years, and then you’ve got new stories by that point and the old one doesn’t seem so important anymore.
Sometimes you have to work to really think of something positive but I think once you start doing it, it gets easier to do. Oh, and I love that photo - what a beautiful sky.