Our outlook has a lot to do with our happiness. How we perceive things can be the difference between enjoying life or being miserable. If we are looking for something good to happen and each day we wake up thinking that this might be the day that it happens we have something to always look forward to and be excited about. But if we look at it as something will always get in the way of the thing happening or that it will never happen then we don’t have anything to look forward to or to be excited about. And even if we look for that thing to happen each day up until the day that we die and it never happens at least we had something to look forward to each day of our lives and we had a little more happiness than we would have had if we didn’t look forward to something happening.

   Our perception of the world can even cause us to take the actions of others the wrong way. Our negative outlook can cause us to be suspicious of everyone’s actions or motives. The best way to describe what I mean by this is to share a story I once heard about two men that got into some trouble for fighting at a bar. This one guy, which we will call Bob, saw the other guy, which we will call John, staring at him for quite awhile from across the room. Well Bob got angry and approached John very aggressively asking him why he was staring at him and what his problem was. Bob was in John’s face yelling at him and before John could say anything Bob punched him in the face and the two went to throwing blows. The fight was broken up and the cops came and arrested the two men. One cop asked Bob why he attacked John and he explained how John had been staring at him like he had a problem with him, like he thought he was bigger and badder and could beat him, so he confronted him. That same cop went and asked John why he was staring at Bob and John explained that he was in search of new eyeglass frames but had not found any that he liked yet. When he walked into the bar he saw Bob sitting at the bar and noticed his eye glass frames and really liked them. John was thinking that Bob had on a really nice pair of eyeglasses and they fit him really well. He was wondering where he got them from and was trying to figure out how to approach him to ask him about them. See John was not even thinking anything personal about Bob. He was not passing judgment against him. He was actually admiring his eye glass frames. But Bob viewed the situation in the way that he thought about himself. How many times have you assumed someone was thinking negatively about you but in reality that person was admiring you? We have to have the right perspective of things before we make assumptions or take action.

   I am sure that you have probably heard the saying about the glass of water at some point in your life. If you see a glass that is halfway with water, do you see it as a glass half full of water, or do you see it as a glass that is half empty? For many years I would say, “what do you mean, “is it half full or half empty?” It is halfway!!” I didn’t see it as half full or empty, I saw it for what it was, it was half way! I honestly did not get the whole concept of the question. I don’t know if I was too realistic of a person or if fear of disappointment of my perception being wrong kept me from being able to see it any other way.

    I had the mindset that if you didn’t expect anything good to happen,  you wouldn’t be disappointed when it didn’t. I thought that I was protecting myself from the pain of disappointment, but I was actually making my life very grime. Having that kind of outlook of things will leave you feeling hopeless. And although disappointment is painful and no fun, I have found that it is much better to look forward to something happening than it is to not to. I became much happier and outgoing when I changed my outlook about things.

   We can either see the glass half full and see it as there is plenty left to drink or we can see it as half empty and there is only a little left or it is almost gone. The same applies to our lives and situations that occur. We can choose to either believe for the best and look at the good that can come out of the bad and enjoy our lives, or we can look at the bad and expect the worse to come of it and be miserable. The choice is ours.

         Answer the following questions:

     Is there an area of your life or a situation that you have a negative outlook in?____

     How could you switch it  around to a positive outlook?_______________________

     What is a possible positive outcome that could happen?______________________

     How has having a negative outlook affected you?___________________________

     How would it feel to choose to have a positive outlook?_______________________

     How would life be better if you chose a positive outlook?______________________