Life Lessons Learned by Lifting My Head

Finding The Positives In Life

Let me begin by saying that I’m so ordinary that you’d never notice me if I were the only one perched on a shelf. And what I’ve learned about maintaining a contented and happy life may only apply to me. But I’m hoping that you might find something that levels-up your ability to find the same.

What Happens When We Constantly Have Our Head Down?

When I look down, I can only see the step I just took and one yet to be taken. That’s an extremely limited view of my life’s potential and one that could never achieve the excitement and joy that I wanted to experience. So, metaphorically, I learned how to lift my head and was surprised by the end result.

An Example Of The Cause And Effect Of This Principle In My Life.

Like so many others, I used to attribute most of the troublesome aspects of life to the circumstances surrounding me. But lifting my head and taking a broader view convinced me otherwise. I’m not saying that circumstance doesn’t play its part — it does.

But if circumstance were solely responsible, then it raised the question — Why didn’t my constant negativism, discontent, and deep-seated unhappiness disappear when circumstances improved?

It became uncomfortably clear that the core problem was always present regardless of circumstance. With my head lifted, I could also see that the only other significant object in this scenario was — ME.

So being the quick witted person that I am, I quickly shifted the blame to someone else.

My repeated slogan became, “I was born this way. It’s in my genes.” Woe to my poor, innocent ancestors…

Change is HARD! But change is what I needed to do to achieve the happiness in life I desired. And there was only one place to start. Attitude. Attitude. Attitude.

Changing your attitude is not about stifling or eliminating negative thoughts. It’s about changing your thought patterns through action. Those words by Dan Matthews CPRP gave a practical starting point.

And these words gave me reassurance that it was possible. This bible verse implies that attitude is a matter of choice, therefore — changeable.

Ephesians 4:23 says: “Continue to be made new in your dominant mental attitude.”

I won’t go into the zillion ways one can go about changing their dominant mental attitude, there are many great resources for that. But I will say, try it for yourself. What do you have to lose except a boatload of misery?

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