What Kind of Day Do You Want?

Good Morning Everybody,
I think one of the biggest challenges we face in our quest towards personal greatness is that we often drift through the day on autopilot. Things get hectic, and we often bounce from meeting to meeting, errand to errand, and chore to chore just going thru the motions. And one of the risks of doing this is that we let the ups & downs of the day determine if WE feel up or down! Instead of taking charge of our thoughts and emotions, we let the circumstances of the day take charge of us. And if we’re honest with ourselves, I think we might find that we often decide whether or not we had a good day based on how well our meetings went, if the client was pleased, if the weather was nice, the traffic smooth, the wifi fast, the check-out lines short, and if people were more or less nice to us… We become dependent on all the external stuff to determine how we feel!
So how do we snap ourselves out of this reactive mindset? How do we go from CRUISE control to MANUAL control so that we can take better OVERALL control of our thoughts and emotions?
Well, I’d like to toss out a really simple suggestion. I know it sounds a little silly, but hey… if it helps, great!
So, in the morning, with people you have a VERY good rapport with– like a spouse or a close friend– instead of telling them, “Have a great day,” tell them, “Have a great day if you want.” Now, this will of course raise some eyebrows and lead to instant confusion or consternation. But that’s okay, because this person likes you. (And hopefully will continue to like you.) The goal of doing this is to simply jolt ourselves (and our friends) into the mindset that the quality of our day is in our hands and in our minds! We want to remind ourselves every morning to take a PROACTIVE, not a REACTIVE approach to the day. No more autopilot. No more going through the motions. Let’s use the remarkable gift of free will that Hashem blessed us with to consciously CHOOSE how to perceive and feel about our day. The more we control the quality of our emotions, the more we’ll enhance the quality of our lives.
So have a sensational day everybody…. if you want.
Marshall
Keep on Building!