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Ideas For Living Newsletter

Things To Consider Today

My Cup Is Half Full, Not Half Empty

November is the month of Thanksgiving. It is a season to be grateful for the benefits and blessings that each of us have in life. It should be a time to slow down and reflect upon our lives, and what is going on in them.

My life has its ups and downs like most other people. There are things that are going well and things not going so well. There are things that have worked out for the best, as well as past mistakes that still affect me today. But the main issue here is not getting everything I want or having everything my way. It is to deal with the situations I face and the circumstances I live in, and make the best of both. How well I can do this is greatly affected by my attitude towards life itself and my ability to deal with it.

I like you do not get any benefit out of looking at things from the negative or pessimistic viewpoint. This doesn’t make anyone happy, nor create more solutions for problems, nor lead to more cooperation between people. This is what I mean by “my cup is not half empty”. In contrast “my cup is half full”. I choose to look at things from the positive or optimistic viewpoint. This makes me happier. I’m more creative in addressing problems, and have more energy to overcome obstacles in my way. This positive perspective helps me to get along better with others and be more of service to them. I feel good and have better mental health. There is more joy to life with a cup that is half full.

What I have said may sound obvious and easy. You may ask, why doesn’t everyone do this? There are many answers to this question, ranging from ignorance, to lack of hope, to being overwhelmed, to lack of a support group, to limited opportunities. But to get more personal, ask yourself, do you view your cup as half full? Do you think this way? Do you feel things this way? Do you approach daily living this way? Review your daily routines, your responsibilities, and your relationships with others. Then evaluate which attitude is predominant most of the time. Is it the more problematic half empty one, or the more successful half full one?

Believe it or not, the way you think about things and view them can either take away from your power to accomplish and succeed, or give you the strength and conviction and power to do more good for yourself and others. This is not theory, but a fact of life. Your choice is how you want to utilize this universal law, but remember the law applies to everyone.

If you’re like most people, it’s easier to be optimistic and happy with some aspects of your life and not others. Likewise you probably have other aspects of your life that are influenced by a more pessimistic viewpoint. Let’s start with this presumption and move on to some recommendations. First do a review or an inventory of your life and identify the aspects that are either on the positive side or the negative side. Then strive to keep what you have that is good and beneficial and helpful to both you and others. Maintain control over yourself and all environmental influences you can to sustain these positive things in your life. Now using your strengths and good characteristics as a base to rely on, slowly but surely began to attack the weaker and more negative and pessimistic aspects of your life. Each small thing overcome or left behind represents a victory for the “half full” side of your life and a defeat for the “half empty” side of your life. In other words, you are gaining personal power and with increased power you have more capability to work on the remaining aspects of your life. With time and effort your cup ultimately becomes more than half full and half empty. It can become 60% full and 40% empty. Over the years it can become 70% full and 30% empty. With enough time, effort, self-discipline, wise decisions, and the utilization of opportunities, your cup can become full and its contents can run over and benefit or bless not only yourself, but those who interact with you or whose lives can be affected by you in some way.

I challenge you during this Thanksgiving season to remember its purpose. Be grateful and humble and enjoy this special time of the year. Make a commitment that your cup will become more full and less empty, that your life will become better not worse. You will strive to become happier and more optimistic, despite the reality of life that not everything is under your control and there are simply things you won’t be able to avoid. But as you do live your life in the future, you can learn from the past and do better.

Enjoy all the Thanksgiving activities with your family members, friends, and associates. Let these activities be wholesome and edifying to all persons involved. In your personal life, set aside some time to reflect upon the ideas in this article and utilize them in your life. If you do this, your enjoyment of Thanksgiving next year will be even better than this year.

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