It’s all in your perspective – optimistic (glass half full) or pessimistic (glass half empty). But be wary of your leaning as you are raising kids, because your influential view is passed on to them daily.
Do you find yourself saying things like:
“I have so much left to do – I’ll never get to the bottom of the list!”
“It’s a never ending circus around here!”
“I’m tired just looking at that pile of laundry; I dread the thought of doing it.”
“Three days have already gone by and my vacation is already almost over…”
Or are you the type to think and say:
“Done! Now there’s another thing accomplished to check off the to-do list!”
“The activity around here is so energizing!”
“Laundry day – dig in and it will be done in no time. Let’s put on some tunes to make the time more fun.”
“4 more vacation days still left to enjoy – what will we do tomorrow?”
How you position the situation is all in the way you frame it. There really is two ways to view everything – one more positive and one more negative. And you have control over it, even if you don’t think to exert that control. But why wouldn’t you, once you recognize you have it, since there is little to no value of having a negative view, except to makes everyone miserable, yourself included. Negative framing is just a habit, the ‘poor me’ feeling, to elicit sympathy (but often getting pity instead, which no one wants). It takes some effort to think about then change negative thoughts, but it can be done and new positive thinking habits formed. And a side benefit is that you’ll feel uplifted with a brighter outlook!
COMMUNICATION TAKEAWAY: When children pick up the negative thinking habit, they likewise turn into unhappy, negative adults. This is an unfortunate by-product of living in environment with adults with a generally pessimistic /negative outlook on life. What a shame since it doesn’t have to be that way, as we can change our outlook simply by changing our thoughts and our words. The glass can be half full, not half empty, all the time!
