Realization is Like a Slap in the Face

I have always been a positive person until recently (recently being the last few years). Something happened and my life went from 100% optimistic to 100% uncertain. I can't call myself a pessimist, but I am definitely not the happy-go-lucky person I used to be. They say you don't notice changes when you are around someone all the time, which proves to be the case here. I never realized how much of a party-pooper I have become and how negative I have turned out to be until I was reading about the primal lifestyle and surrounding yourself with positive people to make yourself a positive person. As all great things happen and realization sets in, this became a stout reality when this really great guy decided I wasn't the one for him. I have been kicking myself for weeks trying to figure out what happened. And then it hit me. Like a slap in the face by a wet snowball on a cold day.


I was sort of seeing this guy; he was everything I was looking for and had a completely laid back lifestyle, something I am completely jealous of. I am the kind of person who is busy during almost every waking moment and he is the same way. But what I realize now, our definitions of busy are two completely different things...his busy was doing what he loved because he loved to do it. My busy was doing what I loved because it was what was needed to get the job done. I realize now that, what I loved has become work and the fun gets taken away when it becomes work. And that is why he didn't want to hang out with me anymore...because my lack of fun is contagious and, like anyone with some sense, he didn't want to catch it. I don't blame him. Just call me Negative Nancy.


I teach survival skills as part of a new recruit orientation. The number one necessity for survival? Ranking above air, water, and food? Positive Mental Attitude. It even deserves a TLA (three letter acronym) like all good things that need to be remembered. PMA is the utmost important thing to survival in any situation. "Think and therefore you are" has never made more sense than it does right now. If you think positive, you will be a positive person. If you think happy, then you will be happy. Likewise, if you think negative, then you will be a negative person. This is something we preach in survival, but why don't we practice it in real life, in everyday situations? You are more proficient at what you have practiced, so do it every day and enjoy the naturalness of being a positive person.


So, here is to a good PMA. Next time that snowball is coming my way, it's going to be because there is 12" of snow on the ground and I'm ready to fire back.


TsS