via Pinterest
{Excuse me while I reminisce for a bit with an old SATC episode.}
Ever see the Sex and the City episode where Carrie celebrates her 35th birthday? Her friends want to throw her a small birthday bash. But they are either late or can’t find the restaurant. In the end, she’s the only bell at her ball and has to pay for her $60 b-day cake too.
Yet, at the end of the night when Mr. Big drives up with big red birthday balloons and asks how was her day, she says, “Fabulous!”
I always wondered about that scene.
That is, until now.
You see, I’ve had about 0 bad days recently.
And it’s not because I won the lottery or suddenly lost my sense of reality.
I’ve actually discovered a tool that may help you get out of the funk you’re in.
It’s all about attitude…
Attitude is a concept that parents talk to teens about.
Self-help books
and gurus too.
But I didn’t really “get” it until a few so-called “bad” days weaseled their way into my life recently.
A biopsy.
A missed doctor’s appointment I waited a month for.
But then I decided that like the white scrawls on a green chalkboard, I could
simply erase it
by changing my attitude.
I made a conscious decision.
I DECIDED that external events would not CONTROL my life.
I DECIDED that who I was was more powerful, more whole, much more significant than a few measly circumstances that would one day pass and be an unmentionable memory.
I DECIDED that I would no longer play victim.
I would be the victor.
And I would do it gloriously.
What I needed to do was
LET GO.
I let go of the guilt I felt for a late appointment.
I let go of the expectation I had to live a certain type of life.
I let go of the disappointment.
I instead did one thing with 3 words.
Let it be.
I gave up fueling the drama.
I gave up on the idea of perfection.
I gave up on the belief that I had control over every single aspect of my life.
And in giving up,
I gave a gift to myself.
We don’t have control over everything. Sometimes unexpected events shake us up to our very core. And we feel like we have no choices. But we do. Try telling yourself, “This doesn’t have to be a bad day. This can be the best day of my life. If I let it. If I let myself see past the inconceivable.”
It is possible.
Trust me.
What I got instead of guilt and disappointment was gratitude, laughter, connection and an opportunity to feel empowered instead of disempowered.
It was the best day I could ask for. Instead of being one of the hardest days of my life.
Can you change a bad day into a good one?
I say, “Most definitely yes!”
In fact, give me more days like that one.
