The Positivity Mantra

‘Don’t worry. We will be okay’

My husband is the eternal optimist. No matter how bad things may get he will continue to chant this little mantra.

‘Don’t worry. It will all work out,’

I used to get so annoyed with him. It seemed to me that he lives with his head in the clouds, quite removed from reality. The sky could be falling down on our heads, and the earth cracking asunder beneath our feet, and he will just continue to assure me.

‘It’s okay. Don’t worry’

Naturally he did not deviate from his eternal optimism during our recently impending disaster. We were under threat of losing the bulk of our workload; being left without even enough money to pay our rent. There was every possibility we would have to return to a much hated job cleaning up disgusting messes in a very unsavoury work environment, for very limited remuneration.

Oh, I had a few sleepless nights, my mind in turmoil with anxious thoughts and imaginings. But, on the whole, I was actually able to maintain a reasonably positive attitude. For once I believed Pete when he told me everything would work out. And, I figured, even it didn’t, what was the point in worrying myself sick? Would that really serve to accomplish anything towards a successful solution to our problem?

Then, at the eleventh hour, I received a phone call. Due to some unforeseen circumstances, we would be required to continue with the cleaning contracts for a few weeks. The very next day I was told that we would now be required to continue working indefinitely; that there was even another small weekly job to be added to our roster.

Pete just smiled and said

‘See? I told you it would be okay.’

©Lyn Murphy 2011

The Difference Is

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I entitled my Blog – ‘Attitude Matters’, and, every now and then, something happens to make me realize just how true this is. In fact, we are in the middle of one of those ‘now and thens’ right now.

I won’t bore you with the details. Suffice to say, just when we thought things were really looking up, the rug was pulled from under us and we are looking up alright, but from the bottom of the barrel.

It occurs to me now that we have two choices. We can drown in a sea of self pity; we can stay angry and bitter and bemoan our lot as ‘victims’. Or we can pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and start all over again.

And that is actually the only difference between us and a lot of the people out there living on the streets – our attitude. We have determined to be survivors.

It’s easy to fall into the trap of saying ‘Why us?’ Why do things like this keep happening to us? But why not us? What makes us any more special than anyone else? We may look at other people and think they have it easy. We may think their lives are perfect – the big, beautiful home, the high paying job, the closeness of their relationship with their partner and their family. I once heard some one say that if you scratch the surface of anyone’s life, you will inevitably find a multitude of problems. Some people just hide it better than others.

Life will go on – regardless of what is happening in our little world. We really have no choice but to go on with it. It’s our attitude that will determine in what state we complete the journey – defeated and broken, or strong and confident that we have given it our best shot.
©Lyn Murphy 2011