A grumpy day in the neighborhood!
Wow, was I a bear on Wednesday morning! In full disclosure, I’ve never been a morning person. I have gotten better at getting up at 5:45 every morning to wake my son up, and some mornings are easier than others, but Wednesday morning was one of those days where I just wasn’t feeling it.
I just wanted to go back to bed, and tell the world (somewhat impolitely) to go away and leave me alone.
It was one of those days where being kind and compassionate was going to take a lot more self control than normal!
It probably wasn’t helped by the fact that I only got about 5 hours of sleep the night before. I wish I could lie to you and tell you that’s an abnormality, but in all honesty it happens way more than it should.
Over the years I’ve developed a pretty high tolerance for being chronically tired, and I tend to abuse that ability way more than is good for me. I know that long term it’s really not healthy, but I struggle getting to bed early in the evenings.
Which isn’t an excuse, but it sort of is an explanation.
But the real reason I was grumpy had nothing to do with the amount of sleep I didn’t get, or the circumstances of how I awoke. For me, feeling grumpy comes down to one simple explanation that forces me to grow as a person, while at the same time reminding me of how lucky I really am. Because in my world, being grumpy occurs when I have lost my sense of focus…
And instead of being grateful, I am wallowing in self pity.
Because if I decide to focus on all the things that make me feel like life is hard, that’s all I’m going to see. Yes, my life has some hardships, but it also has an incredible assortment of wonderful things going on as well.
I am blessed with a wife whose patience with my many weaknesses is downright legendary. How she puts up with me I really don’t know.
But I’m very grateful that she does.
I have two wonderful sons who both teach me through their examples every day, and I have good friends, a home, a business that is growing, and recently a silver lab puppy who brings an indescribable amount of joy and happiness to me.
I am healthy, and I have possibilities before me that have the potential to radically change my world for the better.
But on Wednesday morning, I wasn’t focused on that at all.
Nope. Wednesday morning as I awoke, I was firmly planted in a sense of self pity, and just wallowing in it. Thankfully it didn’t last as long as it could have, but I still realize that it shouldn’t have been there at all.
Because being grumpy isn’t about being happy, it’s about trying to set yourself up as the victim to avoid something that you just don’t like. Gratitude, on the other hand, doesn’t require us to do anything other than pay attention to what we really have, and how good we really have it.
So today, if you are feeling grumpy, I ask you to choose grateful instead.
It’s a lot more fun, and makes you a lot more fun to be around.
— Dr. Alan Barnes
@maddrbmusings