The End Result

“How was YOUR day?”

Simple question right? A question we get asked… probably a lot of times throughout and especially at the end of a day. Such a simple question that I’ve been asked today, lead me to some interesting thoughts while in conversation.

Whenever they asked me what made my day so great, I “sarcastically” responded “Uh… ME.” In which I got the reaction I was looking for — she thought it was funny.

But as I thought about it, and I told her this, it got me thinking… although that sounds quite conceded, it couldn’t be more true! Here me out.

Think about what determines a good or even GREAT day. Friends? Happy customers? Boss in a good mood? Your children not stressing you out? What?

If you chose any of the above, I’m sorry to say that you are probably incorrect. Want a hint? Alright, I’ll just tell you…

It’s YOU. You are who determines the quality of your day. You decide how you will react and respond to situations, good or bad, in your day. You are why your day was either good, great, awesome, amazing, fantastical or super crappy. YOU. And you are the only one that can change it. Not me, your kids, coworkers, students, significant other, family, friends, etc. Although they can have an impact on how good you feel inside, you still can decide how it affects you. On that subject, I recently shared/reblogged a photo that absolutely goes along with my thoughts here. And there’s another one below.

Now there are always situations and people that affect you more than others. Mostly situations where the outcome is tremendously important to you or people who you deeply love. These are the things that can affect your day and rightfully so. If they didn’t, you’d be cold-hearted.

I’m rather referring to daily situations throughout your day that you have little to zero control over… such as traffic jams, unnecessarily angry customers, coworkers or parents of your students… you get the picture. THOSE are the situations that don’t have to ruin your day.

Those are the situations that when you come home from a long day and someone asks that famous cliché question, you can say “It could have been a little better, some unfortunate things happened, but I had a really good day! I did my best to affect the outcome and think I did alright!” Instead of “Meh. It sucked. Stupid work/school.”

Now, will you always have the BEST day of your life every day? No… probably not. But why not strive for it? Would it make sense for a basketball player start a game thinking he won’t make many shots? Or would it make sense for a baseball player to go up to bat thinking he won’t hit the ball? That’s absurd! Right? So why are we any different?

I generally have pretty good days. Nothing specific really makes them “good” or “awesome” or “freaking fantastic” it’s just that I do my best to have the best day of my life, each day.

Thanks for reading and have the best day of your life today!