I can’t have a bad day. Now when I say that, it doesn’t mean in second grade I didn’t trip on my oversized skirt and expose my star-spangled underwear to my crush and his best friend, who bellowed out and over in laughter. Nor does it mean that in the first week of my spring semester, I didn’t run into a fence while trying to catch a bus, just to have the driver shut the doors in my face which forced me to walk to class and resulted in me missing the first pop quiz of the year. And it definitely doesn’t mean I haven’t sat in a doctors examination room and heard the dreaded “sorry, but there’s nothing I can do for you”.
All of these things and more have happened, but I still can’t have a bad day. This is because of the three Ps I live my life by, which are really just a result of my Christian faith.
Purpose, Positivity and Perspective.
I believe everything has a purpose. Sometimes awful situations become great opportunities. These are the instances that happen over time, and pain or suffering turn into a door opener to blessings. Other times, and all the better, we have to find the purpose in an awful situation. Although hard and tiresome, I find these times to be so self fulfilling; to reject the idea that a situation will get the best of me and instead that I will get the best of the situation.
I am also a strong subscriber to positivity. I’m sure many people have either witnessed or participated in a complain war. Oh you know what I mean, those times where a conversation goes a little like,
“Man. I was up so late studying for my test today, I got like 3 hours of sleep”
“Three hours? I wish. I didn’t even go to sleep because I had to study for a test and finish a paper!”
“Oh yeah, you guys are lucky. I haven’t slept in 2 YEARS >:("
Well, you know what I mean. I just don’t understand what I can benefit from investing in negativity. It’s not that I don’t complain, but I just feel much better by also focusing on the positive.
My perspective is a combination of purpose and positivity. In times where I feel like everything’s going against me and I really just feel backed into a corner, I push myself to shift my perspective on my situation. Think of it as a lens, I can put on a bad lens and only see things through it and of course I'll have a bad day. Or, I can see things through a positive and purposeful one and all of a sudden I see things differently. I see all the great things that can come out of my struggle, or the great feeling I’m going to get once I jump over all the hurdles, or even just the story of inspiration I will be to someone else once I overcome my transgressions. Perspective is seeing the silver lining in even the grayest of clouds.
So I can have as bad as a day as you would ever think, but I fight to release that feeling. And trust me, it can be harder to NOT have a bad day than it is to have one. I don’t follow these three Ps to delude myself into thinking my world is sunshine and rainbows, I more than understand the reality of the world. There are harsh truths in life filled with even harsher pains, these three P’s aren’t just to a way to cope, they are my way to continue.