Positive Perspective

Happy Fabulous February!

This is an article from the January/February newsletter, called Verbal Impact.

You may consider this edition late for January, or on-time for February. I prefer the latter. It all depends on how you look at it! Is the glass half-full or half-empty? For the answer to this and many other questions, see the article below. I have decided to make only one edition for January and February. I thought January would be a relief after the frenzy of the holidays, but the frenzy continues…


Life is wonderful. Life is hard. Both are true. How can that be? Good things happen. Bad things happen. That’s life. We all know good and bad are subjectively defined. Take this example:

There was one farmer in the town who had a horse, so he was considered rich by the rest of the people in the town, who were very poor. They told him it was very fortunate that he had a horse. He said, maybe it is, maybe it isn’t.
Then the horse ran away. They told him that it was terrible the horse ran away. He said, maybe it is, maybe it isn’t.
The horse came back with two other wild horses. They told him that it was very fortunate. He said, maybe it is, maybe it isn’t.
His son broke his leg trying to ride one of the wild horses. They told him that it was very unfortunate. He said, maybe it is, maybe it isn’t.
The army came by to conscript all young males, but his son couldn’t go because he had a broken leg. They told him that it was very fortunate. He said, maybe it is, maybe it isn’t.
Since he was the only young man in the town who didn’t go with the army, he got to marry the prettiest girl in the town. Everyone said it was fortunate.
Etc. I’m sure you get the idea. It’s all how you look at things.

So, you can be an optimist or a pessimist. It depends on how your perspective. They say every cloud has a silver lining. And isn’t it nice when you find a bit of sunshine in an otherwise gray day? It’s nice, and seems even sweeter, because it’s unexpected. I had a minor car accident 2 months ago. I don’t like to dwell on minor aches and pains, but when I informed my healthcare professional, he ordered some X-rays. He told me he saw a problem on the X-ray that could now be corrected. I was fortunate to have complained because it might have gone undetected otherwise, and could have caused problems later.

Some people are just not happy unless they are miserable. They like to complain. They like to get sympathy. The problem is that attitudes are contagious. I try to avoid these people. Some days it’s difficult to do so. But it can be done.

I saw a show called Ned’s Declassified recently. It is a show for children, which is about 3 students in Middle School. This was the funniest episode I've ever seen, and it’s about positive and negative attitudes. A student named Ned meets the most negative person on the planet, who also happens to be the new kid in his class. Since Ned values a positive attitude he tries to cheer up the new kid, but he ends up with existential angst, himself. His friends ask him how things went. He says “We do live in a barren Universe of Nothingness!” Eventually, Ned introduces the most negative boy in the world, to the most negative girl in the school and he finds out that putting 2 super negative people together, changed their charge to positive, like multiplication (2 negative numbers make a positive when multiplied). These two were so happy to have found one another, they changed each other. And their effect on others was transformed from negative to positive. When previously flowers drooped whenever they came into the room, now they all revived, just like the other student’s attitudes.

This show demonstrates how your attitude affects your life. It’s very funny. Fabio even shows up for a cameo appearance!

Wishing you enlightenment, encouragement and empowerment!