Every day you wake up and are presented with a choice. You can crawl out of bed, trip over some stuff on the floor, say a few choice words, blame someone for leaving it there, and your day is now off to a decidedly negative start. An alternative scenario would be to get out of bed trip over the crap on the floor, smile over your lack of agility, and go make some coffee or tea without the expletives. The really interesting thing about this choice is that it will present itself every day, and often a number of times during the day or night. You might think of the choice as choosing a positive outlook over a negative one, whatever you choose it will directly effect what happens to you. It is this choice that sets the stage for everything that follows.

I am a project manager by trade and often spend time teaching people how to work on projects using the Scrum agile framework and while there are only a half a dozen ceremonies that need to be mastered, it is often very difficult for the team to do them correctly. These ceremonies appear to be very simple but at the same time difficult to master because they require that you change your mindset and buy-in to a new paradigm. The reason I mentioned this is that making the choice to have a great day by being positive even when facing adversity seems like a simple choice, but just like mastering Scrum ceremonies, it can be more difficult than it appears on the surface.

Yet when it is all said and done, you make that choice each day, and it really is a fundamentally simple choice. Not an easy choice but once you begin to master it your whole life begins to change.You will be happier, you will feel better both physically and mentally, other people will notice your positive attitude and be drawn to you, and opportunities will seem to be everywhere. The choice is yours, there is not a half ass way of doing it. As Yoda said you either “Do or DO NOT, There is no try”.

If you have lived your life without trying to make a conscious choice about your behavior and instead act or react based on how you feel at the time, then this will be a radically different approach for you. Making the choice to be positive on a daily basis will take time, and probably require some training of your mind and body. You will need to nourish your mind with positive words and images, you will need to nourish your body with a good diet and exercise. If you work on these things you begin to establish the foundation of making the right choice every day.

In my next post I will write about how we can build that foundation by getting specific about what you can do nourish your mind and body

Namaste

• Philosophy