Yesterday was a bad day, one of the worst ones I’ve had in a while.
Actually, the day itself wasn’t bad, but I was in a real funk. I woke up grumpy, and it only went from bad to worse after that. Maybe it was the whole “back-to-school, fall-is-coming” thing. Early fall is nice, but late fall and winter are not my favourite times of the year.
As an introvert, I was trying to analyze why I was feeling so rotten, short-tempered, and down—but I never did figure it out for sure.
Later that afternoon, I met a handyman who was hired to do some repairs to our member centre. We chatted a bit as I showed him around. Noticing his heavy accent, I asked him where he was from. Turns out he’s from Lebanon, “where life is hard,” he said. “I was born in war.”
Wow. That brought me out of my pity party!
When I learned about what he went through—and is still going through—it gave me the jolt of perspective I needed.
Although I know that attitude makes all the difference in how your day goes, sometimes we don’t have the willpower or desire to change it. Then along comes a reminder that despite my bad mood, my life is going pretty well. I’m not living in a warzone, I have food on my table, and I have a secure job.
Last week, I read a quote by Charles Swindoll that sums this up beautifully:
“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life.
Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearances, giftedness, or skill. It will make or break a company … a church … a home.
The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for the day. We cannot change our past … we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is attitude … I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it.
And so it is with you … we are in charge of our attitudes.”