Trust me, I’m optimistic…
This week there has been a phrase that I have been using to
help look at my life the way it should be looked at. Like I said before I am
one of the most optimistic people you will meet, but something had occurred in
the past few months that had slowly transformed my optimism into a optimistic
viewpoint for others, but quite brutal for myself.
I think it was just one of those times where I kept seeing
all of the things that I didn’t have. Actually, I think this is something that
most people in their twenties can connect with. With questions of what I want
to do with my life and wondering who I want to spend my time with I began to
see what others have. Instead of finding joy that the world around me was such
a happy place, I saw that I was somehow left out.
But as I said I decided to change things and strengthen my
temporarily weakened strength (hope that makes sense to you, it does to me). I
looked back and thought of all the stories I had learned of hardships that
others went through (But more specifically anything before the 1950s). Others
would often talk of the difficulties that they went through, describing them as
they were described in the Tale of Two Cities, “[they] were the best of times,
[they] were the worst of times”. How could this be so? Weren’t these hardships
the worst of times? For me I knew when I was struggling it was usually just the
worst of times.
As I started to think about these things I learned that
sometimes, you can find joy in your time of misery. Many of you can recall the
movies scenes where the main character has their car break down after the worst
of days. And they shake their heads and say, “well at least it cant get any
worse”, then it suddenly starts to rain like cats and dogs. It is in these moments that you either laugh
or cry. In fact, in these moments I
believe that we naturally feel the need to laugh. In our hardest of moments and hardships, the
cure of laughter brings energy to our wearisome hearts.
So this week I kept saying this phrase, “Just the Way I like
it!”. I found myself complaining all too often. So in order to counter that
negative attitude, whenever I caught myself complaining I would always say
“just the way I Like it”. Like when people were asking about my love life (an already
solemn situation) I would say something like, “You know it’s hard to try to
find someone that you can connect with (in a depressing tone).” But then I
would follow with “It’s Just the WAY I LIKE IT because if it was easy than I
wouldn’t really cherish something once I found it.
Or when they asked, how are you doing….really? I would often
think of all the thinks that were going wrong in my life and start spouting
those out (difficulty making career choices, feeling alone (who doesn’t at
times), and other personal issues), but catching myself would follow up with,
“just the way I like it” and describe the good things. One of which being that
I have job options in a hard economy, or that being alone gives me time to
think about becoming who I want to be.
Somehow I was able to talk about the things that were bothering me and
leave feeling optimistic about all the things that I saw as negatives in my
life. I was enjoying the hard things in my life.
This little trick is helping me to see why, the things that
are harder in life really are helping me. The easy way, isn’t the best
way. Quoting the song A-Team, “the worst
things in life are free” and I couldn’t agree more. When I have had to work,
cry, pray, struggle…..when I have felt like I couldn’t keep going….when I’ve
had to push myself, that was when I received the things that I cherish most in
my life. When I feel like I am on the brink of giving up, it is usually because
I am pretty close to achieving greatness and it’s the last hill before the
summit.
The hill is steep and may seem impossible, but I wouldn’t
have it any other way. My momentary summit is just over the next grueling hill,
and it’s just the way I like It!!!!
