08-31-12 - "Gia and the Wonderful, Amazing, Not to Shabby, Very Great List"

As I conclude this week, I can't help but think thank goodness Labor Day Weekend is just around the corner...  If I could publish this week as a book, I would title it "Gia and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Week."  On the positive side of things though there is always lessons to be learned which I in return am thankful for.  This weeks exercise:  Turning negative outcomes into reminders, not personal attacks.

"From the backstabbing co-worker to the meddling sister-in-law, you are in charge of how you react to the people and events in your life. You can either give negativity power over your life or you can choose happiness instead. Take control and choose to focus on what is important in your life. Those who cannot live fully often become destroyers of life.” - Anais Nin  

After a "terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week," I decided rather than dwelling on it and then just simply moving on, I should reflect and take something useful from the given situations.  I stumbled upon this quote from French-Cuban author Anais Nin and thought it fit perfectly.  "You can either give negativity power over your life or you can choose happiness instead," she exclaims. Of course, if something goes wrong that results in a negative effect, us as human beings are not going to react with complete and utter happiness right away.  I often can take negativity as a personal attack.  I can jump to a sudden conclusion with a blink of an eye, smack a label on myself and then call it done.  This is me needing to learn the right way to take charge of my reactions as Anais mentions.  However I have come discover that just taking a step back from the negative outcome and asking, "How can I apply positive reinforcement to not only make the circumstances better at the moment, but to prevent this situation in the future?" can really take its toll as well as personal pressure off of me.      

I actually wrote down some thoughts about applying this act of positive reinforcement.  When stressful situations arise, I intend to refer to this "Wonderful, Amazing, Not to Shabby, Very Great List."  My intentions are to walk through the list with the incident as my companion, and once our walk has reached the end of the briefing, we will simply part ways and move on from one another.  "Take control and choose to focus on what is important in your life."  I feel as if creating this list and more so thought process is my form of taking control and of course focusing on what is more important in my life.  That of course if positive vibes and happiness.  A theory of mine is that if you are not constantly happy with yourself and life, you are not living.  And as Anais mentions, "Those who cannot live fully often become destroyers of life."

Lesson learned:  Don't destroy yourself upon negativity, but rather take charge of your response to execute sheer happiness and positive occurrences for the future.