I am an active practitioner of the mind-set that life is what you make of it. How a sentence is worded reveals a lot about an individual’s view on life. For example, the following three comments: a) “The glass is half-full”; b) “Today is partly sunny”; c) “I haven’t reached that point YET” are all of the TYPE of sentences that come out of my mouth on a regular basis. Another truism I totally buy into is “Perception is Reality”.

Positive thinking, optimism and self-fulfilling prophecies are all controllable things that make sense to me. The yang to my yin is our *friends the pessimists. *Even in typing this article, I can’t help calling the “archenemies” of Positive Living “friends”……..

To continue with the examples, the same three comments above could be worded, “a) The glass is half-empty…….who is going to fill my glass for me?, b) Today is partly cloudy……I bet it will be like this all week….c) I will never make it……I’m doomed……in fact, we’re ALLLLL doomed…….”

As most humans have the opportunity to choose exactly which words to use to describe a situation, I prefer to cast light with my words, rather throw shadows.

A “Joe Friday” version of the same three comments goes like this:

a) The glass has water in it.

b) Today’s weather is not consistent.

c) I’m working on it.

Tying the Title in with the Article

To illustrate this point, I have “defined” the meanings of each number value as it turns up on the roll of a die in words the I CHOOSE to use.

 

Value of Die	What Springs to MY Mind	What it means to me
One	I won.	Life is great. I have food in my stomach and I slept with a roof over head last night.
Two	You too.	All the above of “I won” with an emphasis this time on YOU can have this feeling too. That is, of course, if you want this feeling.
Three	Free.	We are all FREE to choose our attitudes. Truth-be-told, our attitudes and how we look at things are two of the rapidly diminishing items left in this busy world that remain 100% within OUR CONTROL.
Four	Fortitude	A favorite word of mine. This is a noble word that means, “Strength of mind that allows one to endure pain or adversity with courage.”
Five	Live	The word, “Live” can be pronounced as rhyming with “Five” meaning “not-dead”, in other words, ALIVE AND KICKING. This exact same word can also be pronounced so it rhymes with “Forgive”. Picture someone on the brink of death with a loved one anxiously watching on. If they were allowed ONE word to repeat over and over, the word very well could be “Live, live, live .”
Six	Mix	Life most certainly is a MIX. With proper Balance, PLANNED and EXECUTED, tossed into the mix, little will remain in life to FIX. If balance is NOT a part of life, and the candle is burning on two WICKS, then my personal opinion is that this mind-set and resulting behavior must be NIXED. Otherwise, you’se be getting SICKS .

Rather than leave the outcome of your life to fate, or seemingly random happenings, in closing, may I suggest you look upon each event that occurs in one and only one of two ways: 

1) “Great, I’m glad that happened” or

2) “The leaning experience is not YET readily seen from this seemingly non-ideal outcome……..however, I’m confident a point to be leveraged for growth will soon become apparent. If history is allowed to forecast the future, when things go awry, as they sure have done in the past, a valuable LEARNING nugget is ALWAYS included in the deal. The challenge I have now is to FIND it.”

Any and all comments, both pro & con (Don’t be shy, I can take it!) are welcome in email form directly to: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Peace out,

Bill Ward

< Prev		Next >