“The shortest distance between a crap day and a great day is a decision to adjust your attitude.”—Isaiah Hankel
I love Isaiah Hankel’s frankness. Many of us will complain today of having a lousy day. Others will be celebrating the wonderful day they are having. In both cases, it will probably be attributed to luck or coincidence. After all, one cannot control the circumstances of one’s day.
It is true that we have little or no control over the events of the day. We do, however, have control over our response to our circumstances. Moreover, we have control over how we enter into our circumstances from the start. How we start out day makes all the difference—between a “crap day” and a “great day”. The choice is ours.
The decision to adjust our attitude begins with our morning routine—the side of the bed we elect to get up on, so to speak—but it is also a decision that must be repeated countless times throughout the day. We begin with journaling, positive affirmations, motivational thoughts, etc. to put us is a positive frame of mind. If you are like me, however, that “positive frame of mind” is quickly challenged as soon as you get into traffic—or sooner (especially if you have children to get off to school *wink*).
Certainly, we get the day we expect. If you begin the day expecting a “crap day”, it will be a lousy day. Indeed, it will likely snowball into a worse day. If we expect a “great day”, it is more likely that we will at least have a good day. Stuff is going to happen to challenge us. Expect it. Deal with it positively.
If we expect a “crap day”, we will likely respond to the most minor of inconveniences with: “See. I knew it was going to be a bad day.” Conversely, when we expect a “great day”, we will see the opportunity in the minor inconveniences. We will see the kismet. (That is a word that has not popped into my head in a while—it refers to “fate” or “destiny”.) In other words, we will see the purpose of an event and make the most of it—allow it to work for the good.
It all comes down to decisions. Viktor Frankel wrote that “between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” Stephen Covey wrote about expanding this space—allowing more time to determine our response. If we “adjust our attitude” at the start of the day, it requires only minor tweaks throughout the day to readjust. (On occasion, circumstances might require a more major adjustment, but, if our mind is right from the start, the correction will be easier than if our mind is otherwise.)
Attitude has a set-point (like the temperature setting on the thermostat). Where we set it at the start of the day will have a tremendous impact on where we remain for the day. Sure, we will have our ups and downs, but we determine whether such ups and downs will fluctuate around “crap day” or “great day”. If you start your week with “rainy days and Mondays always get me down”, guess what…?
Be your best today; be better tomorrow. And….
Carpe momento!