Every day, I tell my daughter, “You are going to have a great day.” Not, “I hope you have a great day,” or “Try to have a great day.” I say, “You are going to have a great day,” because I feel if she believes she has no choice in the matter, she is doomed to have a day that is great. I can do this because my daughter is still young enough to believe that Mommy is right most if not all of the time. Thanks to my mommy super powers, I have an infinite knowledge too vast for my grade-schooler to comprehend. Of course, that is all a load of crap. But she doesn’t know that.
The truth is we forget we have control over our own attitudes. We forget we have the choice to not allow others to affect our general mood and outlook on life. I can’t tell you how many times I have heard or said, “I was having a great day. That is until So-and-so had to ruin it by…” It is easy to blame others for our sour moods. Just because we have control over how we let others affect us doesn’t mean it is always easy to practice that control. This is why we tend to give up that control, and then blame someone else for our bad day. Don’t give up the control, no matter how heavy that yoke may be. It is not the speaker who gives weight and value to his words, it is his audience. Remember that the next time someone gives you a harsh criticism. They are as common as dirt, and should be valued as such. As for kind words, they are worth their weight in gold because they are just as rare and just as valuable.
C. L. Parson
C. L. Parson 