Our perception and attitude toward any situation will determine the outcome.
- Chinese Fortune Cookie
Last night as I read these words from my fortune cookie it got me to thinking about the possibilities of what would come to pass if we kept our attitudes at 100% at all times. What would our outcome be on a regular basis if we consistently believed that we could do anything we set our minds to do? You know if we didn’t let the crud get in the way and let our inner critic take the reins.
What if we just tweaked the things weren’t working so well in our lives just a little bit and then went ahead and moved forward.
Tweak, the dictionary says that to tweak something is to make a slight adjustment or change in order to improve or fix it. What if when things went wrong we just moved forward and did what we needed to do to fix it? Unfortunately fear and distrust tends to get in our way and sometimes stops us dead in our tracks. Making mountains out of molehills, taking along with it a big chunk of happiness that could have been ours for the taking.
This past week I watched with my heart wide open as my daughter Bailey was once again challenged by so called “friends” turning into mean girls. As they tried to crush her spirit, I was incredibly proud as she bounced back and pushed towards activities in her life that would bring her happiness. She tweaked what needed to change and began moving towards what she wanted in her life.
A friend of mine this past week also pushed past some huge obstacles in her life and made what seemed like far away dreams a reality. Over the course of the past year she has put one foot in front of the other and made what had originally seemed impossible, possible. I couldn’t be happier for her as she starts on this new path in her life.
Each of us is on one journey or another in our lives. Some days every thing goes as planned and life just clicks along while others can be a struggle. It is what we do during those times of struggle, how we tweak that which doesn’t serve us, that makes our lives all our own. The words of Robert Frost in his infamous poem, The Road Less Traveled, come popping into my head this morning and seem appropriate for today’s letter -
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
So as you head forward in the week ahead I ask you to think about making choices that help you tweak that which is not working in your life – or if appropriate perhaps pick a different path altogether. It is our innate positive inner voice that we must listen to in order to know which way we need to travel.
