What If Your Default Mindset Is Gloomy?

Can You Learn to “Think” Happier?

Amber at Maison d'Evangeline
4 min readMay 9, 2018
Photo by Lukas

Almost every day, without fail, I have to wake up and shake myself into a better mindset. My default lens is slightly overcast.

I’m not a pessimistic person by nature. In fact, most people who know me would accuse me of being an overly optimistic idealist, but that’s not my default view. That’s not how I wake up in the morning.

Partly Cloudy, Chance of Sun

When I wake up in the morning, I immediately start thinking of all the ways what I’m planning to do today won’t work, of all the ways I’ll be wasting my time, because, really, who ever found success writing and creating? Who? I ask myself, as I begin listing the obvious examples in an internal debate first thing in the morning. (Yes, this all happens within minutes of waking up.)

I run the list (every day). Seth Godin. What about him? James Altucher. James Clear. Ryan Holiday.

(Feel free to skip ahead. Some days I’m able to do so myself.)

Chris Brogan. What about him? Gary Vaynerchuk. Tim Ferriss. Rachel Hollis. Donald Miller. What about the writers on Medium? How about them? Benjamin P. Hardy. Kris Gage. Jon Westenberg 🌈. Nicolas Cole. Tim Denning. Tom Kuegler. Steve Campbell. I could go on. How

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Amber at Maison d'Evangeline

Writer, wobbly guide, and shopkeeper behind Maison d’Evangeline