What started out as “one of those days” has ended up as “one of those weeks”.  You know, the ones like my Thursday – my morning client meeting had been postponed, but I didn’t hear that until I was standing in the client’s office; the office desk I am building (I’m redoing my entire office) caused me to make 5 trips to 2 different stores to get everything I needed, after 2 hours at the final stop I was told that my project was not do-able and that I needed to return everything I bought; As I was returning the items, I was told by another store employee that the project was do-able I just needed to hire a handyman to help; while I was in the store I got a call from my brother in California telling me that it looks like my dad has colon cancer.  The day continued to go bad from there – primer not covering previous paint color, custom paint color not matching my expectations, dropping and breaking my daughter’s desk while disassembling it, etc.

Although Thursday was the worst, I’ve had similar days since then.  My expectations for my office have not been met and as a result I am behind on work projects.  My father still has cancer, although I’ve not heard the latest update.  My To Do list has more items to complete than is humanly possible.  And in a few hours I pick up my mother-in-law from the airport for a week’s visit.  I love her and am looking forward to spending time with her, but our guest room is full of my office stuff that I can’t move back into my office because it is not yet finished.

This has definitely become a test of my ability to Choose a Better Life.  I have the opportunity to choose to have a good attitude and look for the blessings in my life or I can wallow in frustration and make everyone’s day horrible.  I did the latter for about an hour and a half the other night and the following morning my husband said, “You were no fun to be around last night!”   So, I decided that 1 ½ hours of wallowing is about an hour too long.

So, I’m taking the time to stop, journal, count my blessings and refocus my attention on the good things.  And there are many.  The color of my office walls is subtle, feminine and pretty and it is a great contrast to my black furniture. The legs for my desk are the exact height I needed – and I didn’t have to have them cut down.  I recently bought a laptop that is enabling me to continue working while my pc is dismantled.  I sold my old office desk which is helping defray the cost of my “new” office.  Because my client meeting was pushed back a week I’ve been given more time to complete my office design and spend with my mother-in-law.   I was able to spend time with my dad a few weeks ago when I was on vacation, before we knew about the cancer.  My blessings go on.

I confess that it is easy to get caught up in wallowing. It’s easy to justify those self-pitying feelings.  But, what good do they accomplish?  They don’t.  All they do is continue the cycle of negativity.  So, I choose to deal with the negative instead of focusing on it and I turn my attention to the positive blessings I’ve been given.  What a difference this makes in my day.

I encourage you to do the same.  Choose to focus on the blessings and Choose a Better Life.