Choices

Perhaps the most important thing I have ever learned on this earth is the fact that I can decide how I'm going to feel. I can't decide what kind of weather I'll have or whether the first person I interact with tomorrow will be in a good or bad mood. I have no direct control over how someone will react to a question or comment I pose to them. In short, I really can't simply decide for myself how just about anything outside of me will play out. But I do have complete control over how I will react to these outside variables in my life. I can decide how I'm going to feel.

The first decision any of us makes every single day is usually the most important: "How am I going to feel today?" Or: "What kind of day is today going to be for me?" I believe the first mistake most people make in the morning is to fail to acknowledge to themselves, either because they have never realized or have never accepted the fact that they do indeed possess the power to make the decision of how they will feel today, or because they get careless and forget that they can make the choice. Either way, they end up deciding by default. They simply accept the first vagrant thought or emotion that floats into their head and accept it as their "fate"--at least for that day.

Accept it or not, everyone has a choice to make when they first wake up each morning and it usually must be made in the first few seconds.

How do I feel?

There's an old story about an Indian chief who is talking to a grandson. He tells the boy that there are two wolves in his (the boy's) life. A white wolf that represents all that is good and noble about his life. The other is a black wolf that represents all that is low and mean and dark about him. The old chief explains that these two are eternally locked in a vicious, bloody struggle for the boy's heart and soul. One of them will win and the boy's life will reflect all that that particular wolf represents; good or bad.

The boy asks the old man with wide and concerned eyes, "Grandfather, which one will win?"

The grandfather answers, "The one you feed."

We are all surrounded by thoughts and emotions. I don't know really, where they all come from. They just appear out of the ether. Either consciously or unconsciously we snag the ones we want. Gather up depressing, ugly or angry thoughts and that will be how you see the world and it will eventually be the way the world sees you because your thoughts and then your words and actions will reflect those thoughts. Gather up hopeful, cheerful and beautiful thoughts and that is how you will see your life and by and by it's how others will see you.

If a man or woman doesn't learn or accept this great key to happiness. It will not matter what else they learn in life.

Look around you and watch how your family and friends act and listen to the things they say. You'll soon be able to easily determine what they are thinking. Then turn your attention inward. See if your thoughts don't determine your feelings, your words and your actions.

Accepting this truth is a huge risk because when you do it you release everyone and everything else from responsibility for how you feel. But in accepting it for yourself, you gain the power to determine how you feel and what you can accomplish.

Look around. Few will really do it. Most will deny that it's possible or at least that it's that simple.

Once you have at least allowed the possibility that this is true to take root in your life, start experimenting with it. Remember to decide each morning that it's going to be a great day today. Think and act and speak as if it really were. When something negative enters your life try and see the good in it. Especially if that negative thing isn't a thing at all but a person. Play "Pollyanna" at first if you have to. I think you'll find that it won't take very long before your life really does improve and that people around you start to treat you differently.

It's the greatest "secret" I've ever learned.