Positive Power People

That's the title of a little song ditty I recorded vocals on for an episode of the CW sitcom "Grounded for Life." Sadly, you can't even find it on YouTube because it ended up on the cutting room floor. My sitcom debut - DENIED (many years ago). But I thought it was an appropriate title for today's post, because today, I'm thinking about attitudes.

It all started with Saturday's realization that two key beliefs, while seemingly offering conflicting advice, are actually both part of an important mindset. We often hear "life's too short" but at the same time, I re-learned on Saturday to remember "What's the rush?" The bottom line is, it's all about keeping things in perspective. With both sayings, the bottom line is that stress is a mostly unnecessary emotion.

Being unemployed, it's very easy to get stressed, or worse, depressed. But as difficult as being out of work is to me, it seems that things always feel worse when I allow myself to wallow in them. Admit it, you've done it too. As I always say,"I'm human."(~~~Darn it!!) Well ~ if you allow yourself to wallow in it, then you also have to remember to find happiness (or contentment or zen, or joy, whatever you want to call it) in order to keep yourself balanced. It's the Ying and Yang of life. You can't live in Ying. I tried to live there for a long time but it was getting me nowhere. And, as I stated in an earlier post, getting away for a few days helped me to get that balance back in my own life.

Remember, if there was no "sad" or "difficult", we wouldn't know what "happy" or "easy" felt like. So, another thing I've tried to focus on during this phase of my life is keeping that balance in check.

Today, I had lunch with a friend where we talked and laughed for about two hours, in between discussing some serious topics. After I left, about an hour later, I got the following text message:

"Thank you for spending some time with me today. I value your friendship... I am happy just knowing you. You made a difference in someone's life. Be proud."

What a nice thing to say! I was just having some fun and enjoying the company of a friend. I have always appreciated my friends. I take friendship very seriously and make a conscious effort to be a good friend. Hopefully, none of my friends feel like I take them for granted (because I never would). Yet, for someone to actually thank me, for just being myself, felt very foreign. Today, I know what Jimmy Stewart's character George must have felt like in "It's a Wonderful Life." I guess you don't know whose life you'll touch or how you'll touch it. But you never will (have a positive effect) unless you've got a good attitude. Knowing that I made someone feel good made ME feel good. And who doesn't like to feel good?

Now, this is just my opinion.  I'm no fan of self-help books or psycho-babble gurus, but I have just learned from this experience that having a positive attitude does make a difference.  It just feels better to be positive, than not! That's all I'm saying.

PS: if you want to hear the 'little ditty'~ shoot me an email and I'll mail it to you. But you're not really missing anything!