I have some responsibilities in my life that I don’t really like. We all probably have responsibilities that we’d rather not have. The way we chose to deal with these responsibilities can affect the quality of our lives.

I am the perfect example of what not to do. I should rephrase that to say that I used to be the perfect example of what not to do. I’m very dependable, and I always try to live up to my responsibilities. The problem was not whether or not I’m doing what I should. The problem was my attitude about them. I felt generally annoyed by the tasks I was required to do. I complained constantly about them. I did them, but I did them begrudgingly.

Your attitude affects your happiness. This is obvious to most people. These tasks that are required of me need to get done. Whether I do them and complain the whole time or I do them and feel good about them. I have to do them. That’s the part I didn’t get until a few weeks ago. I thought that somehow complaining and trying not to do them would make them go away. I was definitely wrong about that. It seemed like the more I complained and drug my feet about it the bigger and more time consuming the task got. The more I resisted it the worse it got. The worse it got the more I wanted to resist. It was a vicious cycle.

Recently, I’ve decided to change my attitude. I’ve decided to look for the enjoyable and good things in these tasks that I must do. Many of these things are acts of service for others that I have to do. Looking it them as things I do to help others and concentrating on how to best do them has made a big difference to me. I’ve been able to even enjoy some of the things I hate doing. I have to admit that isn’t true for most of the things. I still don’t like them, but I don’t dread them like I used to. I don’t have any difficulty doing them anymore. I don’t get that awful feeling I used to get in my heart when I think about them. Simply changing my attitude about those things made me feel so much happier.

I don’t waste considerable amounts of time thinking about how much I hate doing those things. I don’t bring the negative vibe of complaining about those things into my body and into my house. I just do them.

That seems like such an easy lesson to learn, but how how has it taken me? 35 years, that’s how long. Even though we all may know that our negative attitudes affect the way we do things and our quality of life, how many of us continue to have the same bad attitudes?

Your reaction to your surroundings become habits. They become very deeply ingrained habits that are difficult to break, but with effort they can be broken. It will take effort. I have to try to catch every negative thought that enters my head and purposefully replace it with something pleasant. I’m just starting to do this and it’s been an incredibly important lesson for me. It’s been hard too, but I have to say it’s working.

Photo by Eggybird

Tweet This   Stumble This  

Related Posts

• Being Grateful for Every Circumstance
• Love What You Do
• Choose Happiness — Having Faith in Life
• Visualization