The Optimist

Personal mastery teaches us to choose. Choosing is a courageous act: picking the results and actions which you will make into your destiny.
--Peter Senge

This is a story of identical twins.

One was a hope-filled optimist. "Everything is coming up roses!" he would say. The other twin was a sad and hopeless pessimist.

Their worried parents brought them to the local psychologist who suggested a plan to balance the twins' personalities.

"On their next birthday, put them in separate rooms to open their gifts. Give the pessimist the best toys you can afford, and give the optimist a box of manure." The parents followed these instructions and carefully observed the results.

When they peeked in on the pessimist, they heard him audibly complaining, "I don't like the color of this computer . . I'll bet this calculator will break . . . I don't like the game …

Tiptoeing across the corridor, the parents peeked in and saw their little optimist gleefully throwing the manure up in the air. He was giggling. "You can't fool me! Where there's manure, there's gotta be a pony!"

Next time when the life hands you manure, remember that you have a choice; You can complain, grumble, find fault or you can "look for the pony" in the situation.

Everything happens for a reason and a purpose and it can serve you if you choose to look. It is, after all, just a matter of attitude and perspective!