Mindset has a powerful effect on how we perceive the events in our lives. While the facts and circumstances often don’t change, our response to them does and shapes our outlook. Let’s look at the same typical day and see how it can be vastly different.
Tuesday morning you wake up to find that the milk has run out. You won’t be able to have cereal for breakfast however this doesn’t bother you as you can have eggs instead – a much needed break in the monotony of cereal. The traffic is heavy on the way to the golf course, but this means you can listen to the end of the interview on the radio that has caught your interest.
You are late to golf and have missed your tee off time. An opportunity to play with someone who you haven’t met before comes along and you commence your game shortly. During conversation you learn that your golfing partner is also a keen bushwalker like yourself. After the game you exchange details and plan to meet up for a walk in the national park over the coming weeks.
You are driving home from golf, looking forward to a nice hot shower and you get a phone call from your partner asking you to stop at the shops on the way home. You don’t really feel like stopping on the way home but then you tell yourself it is only an extra 15 minutes and it benefits both of you.
Now for day number two. You wake up to find that there is no milk. You grumble to your partner because you can’t have cereal without milk. Your partner suggests you cook eggs instead but you don’t feel like cooking eggs because it takes too much time. Instead you settle for a piece of toast with vegemite – which you don’t enjoy.
At least your game of golf will cheer you up. You are driving to golf and the traffic is heavy. You keep looking at the time and getting anxious that you will miss your tee off time. You start getting frustrated at the drivers around you who are trying to weave in and out of traffic to save a minute or two.
You finally arrive at golf where you have missed your tee off time with your regular golfing buddies. You are told that there is an opportunity to play a round with another member who you haven’t met before. You decline. Your day has already left you feeling angry and you are not in the mood to make “small talk” with someone you don’t know. Besides you might not even get along which would make a bad day even worse.
You drive home and receive a phone call from your partner asking you to stop at the shops to get some milk. With the day you have had so far, stopping on the way home is the last thing you feel like doing. You express this annoyance to your partner and declare that you are going home back to bed.
The two days described above were only different in one way ….. how the circumstances were perceived and responded to. Remember while we can’t direct the wind, we can always adjust the sails. How would your day pan out?