Always End the Day with a Positive Thought
End the day with a positive thought, what an interesting, inspirational message? When I first saw this quote the other day, I had to stop and think about it. The first question I asked myself was, why?
In thinking about the deeper meaning of the inspirational message, I thought about what I do every day since I can remember. Yes, that’s right, back to when I was a child, though it’s more likely that as a young adult, I lived this mindset.
The full quote reads:
“Always end the day with a positive thought. No matter how hard things were, tomorrow’s a fresh opportunity to make it better.”
~unknown
Examples:
How do I apply it? One way is I make it a point to always kiss my girlfriend good night, every night. I did the same when I was married. Unless financially advantageous, neither my girlfriend nor I will marry again. But I diverse.
Life is hard when you live with someone as opposed to living by yourself. I’ve done both as an adult. Though being honest, having someone to live with, makes life easier in many other ways. All things considered, I prefer living with a good woman than living alone.
Kissing her good night, even if we fought earlier in the day, reinforces a strong desire to maintain our relationship and encourage it to grow. Tomorrow, we can work on building strength in the relationship. It never ceases to amaze me how I start off every day thinking of her, wanting and needing her, only to slip into negativity. Coming out the other side, I want to patch things up, and kiss her again.
Putting Positive Thought into Action
For me, this is easier said than done. As many of you know, I suffered a severe head injury three years ago. The injury impacted my life in ways too many to count. At the hospital on the day of the injury, the attending physician told me I’d be fine in ten to fourteen days. He couldn’t have been further from the truth. For the next six months, I suffered from dizziness, headaches, nausea, fatigue, and sensitivity to all sorts of environmental conditions. Three years later, most of the issues resolved, but for three. Oh sure, doctors and specialists help me but none have uncovered the root cause or solved the problem. As a result, they designated me as partially, but permanently disabled. It affects me every day, and every night.
By the end of a typical day, I’m fatigued and ready for bed. Most days, I’m thinking about bed before the sun has even gone down. But I am determined to live my life and not let it get me down. Come hell or high water, I go out, enjoy social interactions, eat, drink and be merry. I pay for it at times, but I am determined to live my life, injury notwithstanding. As a result, as I climb into bed, making sure I kiss her good night, and tell myself that I will sleep well and tomorrow will be a better day. At least that’s the plan.
Results
Does it work? I admit it is a struggle. Some mornings I feel like I got little if any rest at all. Overnight, when I awake to relieve myself, I feel the headache gnawing away at my brain. The morning is not much better. Some mornings, all I want to do is stay in bed.
Do I? Rarely, if at all. I force myself up, grab a shower, pop a pair of ibuprofen to take the edge off, and go about my day. Early mornings are when I do the most of my writing, though this past weekend, I struggled with creative thinking and didn’t get much done. Since writing does not yet pay the bills, I work a full-time job. On these days, I put my pants on one leg at a time, kiss her goodbye, climb in the car and off I go. I love this job and it allows me the flexibility I require easing back into the tasks I am responsible.
Do I take moreover the counter pain relievers? No, I don’t, or I should say rarely. I am also determined not to get hooked on the stuff. What I do is do my best to ignore my injury and move on, always ending the day with a positive thought.
If not, what’s the point?
What do you think? I’d like to know.