Met my neighbor this morning on my way to my morning jog. He seemed quite flustered and irritable. As we crawled along, I could make out that he was miffed about something and that was playing on his mind and conveyed by his frowning expression on his face.
So I gently enquired in a jovial manner that it seems like you have got off from the wrong side of the bed, judging by your mood. That was like a can-opener to his feelings and before I could say anything, I was given a thousand reasons for his day starting off badly – he almost slipped on the wet bathroom floor, his toilet slipper tore, the newspaper guy did not turn up, he couldn’t empty his bowels properly, his kid did not wake up on time and missed the school bus, as a result his wife had to take the kid to school and for which he had to hear an earful, etc, etc, etc.
When you have a bad start to your day, usually the mood carries on throughout the day and you find yourself irritable and uncharacteristically unreasonable in many things which you normally would not have been doing. People who come in contact with you also feel the pulse of your bad mood caused by your bad start to the day.
Picture this opposite – When you wake up, before you get off the bed, you think in your mind and pray to god that today is going to be a good day and you will maintain a positive attitude. Having done that, you wake up with a lovely good-morning kiss from your wife who makes you a cup of tea before you are even off the bed. When you go to the bathroom, the same instances happen, but because of your decision to stay positive and make it a nice day, you handle all those minor irritants positively – it is not as if you have lost the gulf war just because your bathroom slipper has torn. Child missed his school bus, but he hasn’t been thrown out of the school no – you can always drop him to school separately, albeit with a little inconvenience.
If you maintain your positive frame of mind, no matter what befalls you the entire day, you will come out tops and people coming in your contact will not realize the real situations you have faced the entire day because you have managed to handle them with your calm and composed positivity.
So when we wake up in the morning, life’s menu offers us a variety of attitudes to adopt for the day i.e. happy attitude, sad attitude, gloomy or excited, moody or stable. The menu is there in front of us, but it is only us who are to choose which attitude we are going to adopt for the day.
You make the right choice and you have a smashing day, if you make the wrong one, not only you, but also your family, friends, colleagues and all those who come in contact with you will wonder in their minds – “I am sure he got off from the wrong side of his bed”
So choose well my friends, because each day matters and each day counts. Make your days happy, positive and productive and keep others around you also in the same spirits.
Dr. Rajesh Mankani
