Happiness is a choice, choose it

There are people who would look up at their burning house and as they held their kids close exhale, “we made it out alright.”

There are also people who would have their hands cupped over their mouths thinking not of what they’ve saved but of what they’ve lost.

What is the true difference between these two people?

They’ve both lost just as much, yet they both feel an entirely different emotion.

The difference is that the first person has chosen happiness — rather than despair — despite all they lost.

You see, happiness doesn’t just happen to you.

You have to choose happiness every day by seeing the good in the bad, by looking at the opportunity for the future rather than dwelling on the failings of the past.

By focusing on the good you reward goodness in your life. You allow more good into your life as a product of your mental conditioning towards positivity.

By focusing on the bad in every situation you invite more negativity into your life.

This influences the things that you own, the people that you interact with, your family, your friends, and ultimately the outcome of your actions and their effect over your end success.

People are not optimistic or pessimistic by nature. It takes a conscious effort to choose which side you embrace — negativity or positivity — neither is a state that is thrust upon you.

Positivity is a state that you choose to maintain. It will be influenced by your emotional reactions to the events that life throws at you, but no matter what happens to you, you have the choice to respond as you wish.

To think or argue otherwise is both lazy and also symbolic of a deeper conditioning within that you’ve created through your choices over time — to claim yourself the victim rather than admitting yourself as the gate holder to your own emotional state.

So, at the end of the day when life throws challenges at you, you must decide — do you curse the darkness, or do you light a candle?