Habits and Choices

Being miserable is a habit; being happy is a habit; and the choice is yours. – Tom Hopkins

Habits – we all have them.  Habits can be good, and habits can be bad.  The good thing about habits is that they can change.  That’s how Think Positive 30 came about.  You can read about it here, but the short version is, I decided it was time to stop always whining and complaining about life and to try and find more positives.  The thought being, if you focus on negatives, you’ll attract more negatives.  If you focus on positives, you’ll attract more positives.  Call me crazy, but if I’m going to be attracting anything into my life, I want it to be positive.  It’s a choice I made.  I had the choice and I made it.  Do  I always succeed?  No of course not.  I get glum, I get cranky, and I can turn into a negative Nellie without a problem.  But I always try to snap myself out of it, because it’s my choice.  I often find myself surrounded by negativity on a daily basis, and that makes it hard, but again, the choice is mine.  Do I let the attitudes of others bring me down or do I look for things to snap myself out of it.  Again, in the interest of honesty, I’ll say that I snap out of it maybe 70% of the time.  The other 30% I can wallow and let the negativity bring me down.  But again, I have a choice and I’m choosing to make that percentage better.  How can anybody choose to be unhappy all the time?  It’s something I don’t understand.  I know a few people like that and in talking to them, they are always saying that they don’t have a choice.  They are  a victim of their circumstances.  I don’t think so.  First by calling themselves victims, they are putting themselves in a negative place.  The word victim just has such negative connotations.  The first thing they need to stop doing is to stop thinking of themselves as victims.  We’re not victims folks.  Our circumstances may not be exactly what we want but stop thinking about being a victim or being “stuck” where you are.  You have a choice, you can make changes.  They may not be huge, all encompassing changes at first, but little things add up.  The greatest flood can start with a single drop of water.  Why not start your flood of positivity and changes with one small step.  Smile, or compliment somebody, or better yet, compliment yourself.  You have a chance to make things better, you just have to make the choice.