On Choices and Attitude

One of the most important aspects of my personal philosophy is that everything is a choice. Granted, we can't choose what happens to us; however, we very much choose how we react to things in life. Controlling one's attitude is one of the keys to happiness, working hand-in-hand with living in harmony with the gospel. As Harold B. Lee put it, "Happiness does not depend on what happens outside of you, but on what happens inside of you. It is measured by the spirit with which you meet the problems of life."

I have been a much happier person ever since I really discovered this truth for myself instead of just hearing similar statements on attitude. Please let me be first to point out that I am not the best at applying these keys to joy. For much of this year I've been rather sullen, or at the very least not my usual happy self. (I consider happy as my normal state. I walk around just smiling pretty often.) I was quite unhappy with my financial situation and basically looked for an escape route. There were plenty of moments where I could see things in a proper light (as I recognized that I was learning quite a bit working at Wasatch Mental Health), but overall my attitude was not a joyful one. Now that I'm in a far superior situation, and having much clearer sight of things past, I can once again see that whatever unhappiness I experienced this last year was my own making. I did not choose to be happy. 

The real challenge is remembering this truth when things aren't going right. It's one of the major things I need to work on. My brother, Clint, is much better at applying these principles than I am. His current employment is, from what I saw, pretty bad—dude truly can do much better. But he's happy because he chooses to be, and he recognizes that he's learning things while he's at it. Clint's always been better at applying principles like that than I have. (I still will keep trying to eat so food doesn't go to waste, until I remember that it's more wasteful to keep eating when I ceased to enjoy the food. I pointed this out to him years ago when an economics professor made the point in class, but Clint is better at keeping that philosophy than I am.)

I guess this is a sort of New Year's resolution for me: I am going to have a relentlessly positive attitude. 

A lot of things have led up to this resolution. Seeing my brother's attitude when I visited for Christmas reminded me a lot, a sort of catalyst. Largely it's just been that I haven't really been nearly as happy as I should be, and I am well aware that that is purely my choice. I'm not nearly as satisfied with who I am right now. I used to come up with some of the most awesome dates, but I generally don't put much effort into them nowadays. But that's more symptoms than anything. Choices and outlook are at the heart of the matter. I'm going to make a lot of changes, but everything starts with having the right attitude. 

And attitude is a choice like most everything else in this life.