Day 8 - Two Little Words - Push Up

​How can we successfully navigate the everyday choices we face?

Over my career as a Naval Officer, author, and consultant, I have travelled from state to state and nation to nation, and I met some very interesting people.  Many of those interesting people had good attitudes.  

​On the other hand, some of those people had some pretty bad attitudes.  
 
And after my arrival back in the United States, I dedicated quite a bit of time reflecting on the differences in the attitudes of the people I had met.  
 
I wondered, “Why are some people positively minded?”
 
On the other hand, why do some people have a negative frame of mind?  What determines the difference between a good attitude and a bad attitude? 
 
Eventually, I began to understand the awesome power of personal choice: having a good or bad attitude is as simple as “deciding” to have one or the other.  However, all too often, people simply choose to have a bad attitude.
 
I have seen countless examples where associates, friends, and strangers blame anyone and everything for a situation which was initially caused entirely by them.  Unlike those blameless people, I learned that we have to develop an awareness of our personal power of choice - a powerful tool that can be used to achieve our goals.  
 
Interestingly, many people see choices as “forks in the road,” like the capital-letter ‘Y’, where Choice A differs slightly from Choice B.  
 
Actually, as the accompanying picture reflects, our respective choices are more like a capital-letter ‘T’ in your path.  The two choices don’t represent a slightly different route, but rather two totally different paths altogether, completely opposite in direction and principle than the other available journey.  

More importantly, after we make our choice at the decision point, we begin to move closer to one end (of the 'T')... and increasingly distant and further AWAY from the other option at the other end (of the 'T'). 
 
But how can we recognize and successfully navigate the various choices we face every day?  
 
How can you make sure you are making the right decision when selecting from multiple paths, journeys, and routes?  How can you keep an alert mindset to keep from believing your life has lost a certain amount of meaning? 
 
You certainly can’t go around (merely) quoting songs like, “Be Happy”!  If you did that, people would probably get tired of seeing you come around.  And to be sure, on some days, it seems like everything is going wrong.  
 
For example, perhaps you missed your exit off the highway; received a bad annual report at work; or simply got into an argument with one of your friends.  On those days, it can be hard to keep a good attitude.  However…

I am asking you to consider the similarities between your life and the simple mode of transportation called -
 
               The Elevator
 
In this vast world of souls, our lives are forever flowing into and out of one building and into the next… from one structure to another, in a sea of houses, towers, shops, malls, schools and associated dwellings.  Within all of these buildings, our lives and minds travel in and out of the various structures without a great deal of thought about how we get from Point A to Point B.  
 
Before this challenging pandemic, we often set out and arrived at our destination, literally and figuratively, without significant forethought.
 
The “Elevator of the Mind” concept is an example of how you can set aside some time before you start the day and actually decide to have a positive attitude throughout the day.   
 
And if you can set a course of positive thought and action for ONE SPECIFIC DAY, you can probably put together six or seven straight days of positive thought… and end up with a whole week’s worth of great, positive decision-making – one day at a time.  After all, that’s all we can live anyway… one day at a time.
 
A positive attitude is actually a very valuable gift that only YOU can give to yourself.  No one else can do for you what you have the power of doing with your attitude.  No one else can give you your attitude.  Moreover, no one else can give you a good or bad attitude.  
 
It’s entirely up to you!
 
I’ll say it again: if you can start your day with one good thought, followed by one good choice, and another good thought and another good choice, you are setting forth a fundamentally positive day.  That positive day can then be connected to another successfully positive day… and then another… until, before you know it, your week has been slowly but surely pushed into a series of seven-day successes (a whole week)! 
 
And, if you can put this process in practice for a day and a week, you can surely put this process in place for two, three, and four weeks.  In other words, if you can do this for one day, you can do it for seven days (a week).  
 
If you can do it for a week, you can do it for four weeks (a month).
 
And, if you can do it for a month… you can do it for a year.  
 
If you follow this process for a year… it will become part of who you are.  Indeed, it will define who you are: you will be a positive person with a great attitude.  

Like the physical elevator you can see in every tall building, the “Elevator of Your Mind” starts with one simple choice.  As you stand before the closed doors of the yet-to-be-called elevator, you are faced with one sole, simple choice: up or down?  Quite simply…
 
               PUSH UP!
 
If you press the “up” button, the elevator will take you up.  
 
If you press the “down” button, the elevator will certainly take you down.  
 
And in our very own lives, “turning on” a good or bad attitude is as simple as pushing a small button.  
 
However, on too many occasions, people blame others for their attitude.  People blame friends, family members, and enemies for MAKING them mad.  Some couples even blame their significant other for MAKING them lose their temper.  Some employees blame their supervisors or their jobs for MAKING them unhappy.  Yes, people blame, blame, and they blame.  
 
Why do people freely give so much blame to others?
 
Instead of giving the blame to others, let’s accept our respective roles in pressing the single button that raises or lowers the Elevator of Our Minds.  
 
We certainly don’t blame other people when we get off at the wrong floor of an office building!  We don’t blame other people if we push the DOWN button when we actually want to go UP to a higher floor in an office building! 
 
Accordingly, we should never blame other people for our personal attitudes.
 
Like the physical elevator in a building, in the Elevator of Your Mind, regardless of how you arrived at your current place in life, you still have to make a simple choice: 

​To what location will you go from here?  

​Yes, we all face challenges.  And as simplistic as this model for life may appear, simplicity does not mean our paths ahead are easy. 
 
Many of our day-to-day challenges may, at times, appear to be hopelessly insurmountable. 
 
In fact, many of us have faced previous challenges that appeared impossible to overcome (at the time)
 
However, as you now stand in your respective box ("the elevator"), you are faced with one critical choice: 
 
Will your thoughts and actions descend downward into a dark pit of despair?  
 
Or, will you press the UP button and start self-exalting yourself out of the current situation?  
 
It is entirely your choice:
 
                                                PUSH UP!