Submit Article

If you would like to submit an article, click the button below.

Navigation

<-- Back to Current Category

Perpective - is your glass half full?

By: Sally Higgins, Acccelerate Now, Thu Dec 8th, 2005 08:45:01 PM

Lets start with the old cliché is the glass half empty or is the glass half full? This is the essence of this article - because the glass is always at the halfway mark, no matter what the situation is!

Take for example this morning. I woke up feeling tired and exhausted. When I finally made it to the bathroom I was greeted by a zit on my nose that was so bright and shiny it could have helped aircraft to navigate. My eyes looked like someone had spent the night filling the bags underneath them with coal. I was not a pretty sight to even the most forgiving personality.

I had a choice of crawling back into bed, feeling depressed and sorry for myself or singing my head off in the shower and dancing my way to the kettle. So was my glass half full or half empty?

I realized at that moment that I had the power to decide what kind of a day I was going to have, the same power I have to choose the type of life I will have. There were a thousand things I could focus on either way.

Yeah I could do depression today. God knows I deserved to. I had earned it. It was raining, there were unpaid bills, one of my friends had been driving me mad, I had exams to study for, ...wow I really deserved a blue day.

And then for every negative thought I could think of a thousand positives; the reservoirs were filling up, the farmers were getting essential water flow, I am alive, I am in good health, I have great friends, I love running my business, I have books to read, things to learn, I could go on and on.

And so I took my halfway filled glass out for a test drive. I phoned one friend and told them that I was feeling down and I phoned another and told them that I was feeling vibrant and energetic. The strangest thing happened, both magnified my feelings! My first friend validated why I should be feeling down and said things like 'well no wonder, you have been working very hard lately, poor you, etc' and the second friend said 'well no wonder, you have been working very hard lately, good for you'!

So now I have a strategy for when I think I might feel like having a blue day. I contact people and tell them that I am having a great day and feeling fantastic. The reaction is always one of two things - they either magnify the great feeling - or they miscalibrate me and tell me how miserable they are feeling. When I hear someone else doing miserable it gives me an instant uplift to my spirits. Listen to someone else do miserable and you'll get exactly what I mean by this. It can be a real chore to hear someone else doing miserable.

On reflection the funniest thing for me was just how hard I had worked to wake up looking that awful that morning. It was the result of a dedicated evening of connecting and enjoying the company of friends and strangers. I worked hard to have that amount of fun, drinking a bit too much, eating foods that weren't particularly part of my action plan for long-term nutrition, health and vitality and staying up a weeney bit too late.

So was my glass full or half empty? Would I focus on the great evening with friends the night before or would I focus on how I looked and felt today as a result of that evening?

It was absolutely going to be focusing on the night before and how much I had enjoyed it. The minute I reframed my thoughts and began to think that way, I instantly felt more vibrant and energetic. In fact I couldn't wait until the next time that I would wake up feeling exhausted with bad skin and heavy eyes.

About the author: Sally Higgins is a certified and experienced Performance Consultant and Coach and runs her own business. Her company Accelerate Now have an established client base of corporate and personal clients. For more information refer to the website www.acceleratenow.com.au. This article may be republished provided this resource box and links remain intact.

Sign In