The Secret to a Happy Life

“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, the education, the money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company… a church… a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past… we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you… we are in charge of our Attitudes.”     - Charles R. Swindoll

I came across this quote this morning and of course it was one of those Ah-ha moments. Isn't it so very true? The only thing I can control is MY attitude. For me that is liberating, but scary. I HAVE THE CONTROL.

I believe it is THE secret to a happy life. Life is what YOU make it. Ultimately no one can make you happy. You have to keep a positive attitude, you have to work at it and it is not easy. It is such a simple concept, but it is hard because our lives are so dynamic.

I am going to be real here and say that I do not always have the best attitude and I notice that it changes the vibe of my whole family. If Mike says something that makes me upset or Brae pitches a diva fit, I have found that I deal with it so much better when my attitude is upbeat, happy, and positive. I can let it go. If it's not then well it seems to escalate into a bigger situation.

For me, I have found that if I am able to workout then my attitude is automatically in a better place. I don't have to force it so much (those endorphins are my happy medicine...for reals). If I am not able to workout, I have to work on my attitude a bit more to get my head in a good place.

So what's all this mean? It means I am here to say I am going to try to do my best at keeping a more positive attitude and having a happy life....we only get one.