Tell me the difference between these two statements:
1. For every good in life, there is a bad.
2. For every bad in life, there is a good.
Alright, alright, I know – they sound exactly the same. But be patient with me.
The difference between these two statements is the difference between a half-glass empty and a half-glass full. It’s difference between pessimism and optimism. Between fear and hope.
The last couple of days, I’ve been a little on the edge of which one to believe.
Someone close to me… their health isn’t doing so great (but I’m not worried – I know they’ll be okay). And for a minute, for every laugh or joyous moment, I was terrified that if all the happiness built up it might be stripped away from us and sent to oblivion.
But last night, we went to chase the fireworks.
Every July 4th, we’d get in the car and we’d drive around, trying to find the fireworks whereever we could. And we did the same last night.
At first, as usual, I was afraid that seeing too many fireworks might be equivalent to a bad omen. But by the end of the night when it was time to go, I decided, I was wrong.
Here’s the thing, whatever your perspective may be, good and bad are both unavoidable in life. Having a positive perspective might better your mood but it might not save you just as much as having a negative perspective might wear you down but might not destroy you.
Living in the day to day goes beyond perspective. Yesterday, when I wrote “Progress”, I talked about how it’s all about yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
Anticipation is about taking what’s happened in the past and constantly trying predict the future. Something that you can’t get right every single time.
So I choose to believe that it’s better to stop thinking about what might happen and focus on the now.
When it comes to careers and goals, all three days are important. But when it comes to happiness, today is all that matters. This moment, right now.
And though we may not be able to control every single thing in lifen that which is in our control, we must optimize.
Maybe spending the night chasing fireworks and seeing too many is a lot of good that might be balanced out by a lot of bad. But we can’t control that. But which is better? Not chasing the fireworks, being depressed, and hopibg that’s going to save you? Or going out there, having a blast, so much so that if the world ended right now, you’d still be okay?
I choose the latter.
We all have our days when we are optimists and hopeful and when we are pessimists and scared. But those are for yesterday and tomomorrow.
Today, I choose to not care about correlations and patterns and consequences. I choose to be happy. I choose to live a good life. I choose to smile and make those I love smile.
That is most important.
