I’ve always been a cup half full person and I find it difficult to understand people who are cup half empty people. When you look for the good stuff it’s amazing how much of it you notice. Same is true with the bad stuff. Why would you focus on the negative things around you instead of the positive? That’s not to say that I don’t get down now and then. I think we all do. It’s just human nature. Things aren’t always perfect, and it would be boring if they were, but there are so many wonderful things to be grateful for in our world. What is it that negative people get out of being negative? Some will tell you that it’s genetic and others will say that they are a product of their environment. I say hogwash! We have a choice every day when we wake up to either be optimistic and grateful for what we have or to wallow in misery and self pity. Every day ordinary people overcome hugh obstacles, lives of poverty or abuse, war and fear to become beings of light who have the power to effect the world. Some are famous, some are not, but they all chose to focus on the positive and find ways to appriciate what they have and the courage to change what doesn’t work. It’s all about attitude. It’s about seeing the good things in life and being grateful for what we have. I challenge you to write down 5 things every day that you’re grateful for. If you do, you can change your life and you’ll find yourself being happier without even realizing when it happened. What are you grateful for today?

The great thing about living in West Texas is the sky. It goes on forever and we have spectacular sunrises and sunsets. The land is flat, flat, flat, and you can see for miles. Sometimes it feels as if you might float right off the earth because there’s no anchor. When you’re driving things can be a bit boring, but suddenly, the road drops off into a beautiful canyon filled with reds and browns, golds and yellows, and subtle shades of green. You don’t see them coming, they’re just there unexpectedly and they take your breath away. Life is a lot like that. You go about your business everyday and think how boring things are then suddenly something happens. Maybe you fall in love or perhaps you reconnect with an old friend. Your kids or grandkids do something silly and you dissolve into gales of laughter. You might receive a compliment or gift that lifts your spirits. Whatever it is, it’s always something unexpected that catches you off guard and fills your life with color and delight. Sometimes it’s something huge like the West Texas sky and sometimes it’s just a small unassuming thing, but it suddenly takes your breath away in its unexpectedness. They are there all around us, these unexpected moments, all the time if we just pay attention. These are the moments that make life so wonderful and beautiful. They create a rich and beautiful landscape just waiting for us to notice. It’s important to recognize and appreciate the beauty they bring and to celebrate each and every one.

Do you ever notice how children and pets are able to express pure joy and delight over the most ordinary things? To them everything is an adventure filled with possibilities. Every day presents new opportunities to discover and explore. They embrace every moment and express their feelings good or bad. When did we start to learn that it’s not OK to look at the world through those child eyes? Did we suddenly develop amnesia at a certain age? Did our parents teach us that to be grown up means not finding the beauty in every moment or did we just become afraid of what others might think because somebody judged us for our exuberance?  Does being an adult mean we’ve lost our ability to be awed by the simple things? It’s too bad most of us have forgotten how to play. We spend so much time taking ourselves seriously that we don’t remember how to have fun each and every day. Who cares what anyone else thinks? If they want to be serious that’s OK. But for me, I’m going to try and remember the world when everything was new and exciting and act accordingly. Sometimes a different perspective can literally change your life. And besides, who doesn’t want to have fun? What do you do just for the pure joy of it?

Someone said to me the other day they must be doing too much multitasking because they couldn’t get out the sentence they wanted to say. It was all jumbled up and they had to stop and refocus in order to get it out. We laughed about it, but it’s really true. When we get too many things going on, it’s impossible to fully give your attention to the task at hand. I know I’m guilty of doing the same thing. I may be working on a project while my mind is elsewhere. The tv or radio is probably on, the phone is ringing, I’m thinking about my to do list or what I’m going to have for dinner, the dog wants out, etc. Or I’ll get an idea for the blog, but forget about it almost as quickly as I thought it because I’m distracted with something else. As much as I love technology, it does make it difficult to stay focused on one thing at a time. While I may not be able to do much about it at work, I’ve taken the bull by the horns at home. Sometimes I don’t even turn on the tv or radio. I just focus on the task at hand, whatever it might be. I find that life is so much simpler that way and I usually get a lot more done. It also gives me a certain sense of peace and freedom that I otherwise don’t feel. Maybe I’m just getting old and simple minded, but I don’t think so. I think staying focused is the key to successfully completing those projects both big and small and eliminating a lot of the stress in our lives.

I’ve learned that the easiest way for me to grow as a person is to surround myself with people smarter than I am. -Andy Rooney
I ran across this quote the other day and realized how true it is. Thinking back, most of the important lessons I’ve learned are not the ones I learned in school. True, my teachers were smarter than I was and I certainly learned a lot from them. But it was those people outside of school that I learned the most from. People like my parents, my friends, co-workers and bosses, boyfriends and even people I didn’t like very much. Some of those people weren’t smarter than me, but boy oh boy did they teach me some things. Some of those lessons weren’t necessarily easy to learn, but learn them I did. However, most of the people that have really made a difference in my life were a lot smarter than me and thank goodness I had the good sense to listen and learn. I am forever grateful for all those lessons and I plan to continue to stretch and grow and surround myself with people who are smarter than me. After all, you can teach an old dog new tricks, but only if the dog is willing to shut up and pay attention.