Carrying storm clouds with you let’s you experience great things but while you experience great things one little thing happened that ruined the entire experience not enabling you to focus on the positive that happened.  Creating your own misery is optional and there are ways that you can focus on the positive by noticing if you are focusing on the negative, finding one positive thing in your situation this five minutes, and focus on that positive thing for the next five minutes.

A friend of mine has as amusing story. Several years ago, every time she left her house, she got rained on. If she went to a different part of town, it might rain on her but not even rain at her house. This happened five or six days in a row, until her husband started teasing her that the weather report that morning had said, “There’s a 100% chance of rain if you’re within five feet of that woman in the green station wagon.”

This is funny, because the idea of someone actually carrying literal storm clouds with them is humorous. Of course it wasn’t really raining just on my friend. She simply happened to be where it was raining.

This little story makes me think, though, of other people I know.

People who almost always find something “wrong” no matter what the situation is. For instance, “I just had the best lunch I’ve ever had. Absolutely the most wonderful soup I’ve ever tasted. It was incredible.” Sounds pretty upbeat, right? But then they put on their disappointed voice and say, “But I couldn’t have a glass of milk with it. They didn’t serve milk.” For these people, the best lunch they ever had was actually ruined, not just diminished, because they couldn’t have a glass of milk with it. They focus not on how great the lunch was, but on the one bad thing about it.

I guess all of us do this from time to time. I certainly am guilty of missing the stars because there is one tiny cloud up there somewhere. But I think on the whole I’m a pretty positive person. I try to find the best points about something and really dwell on them and make them my focus, so I can have a great time almost anywhere. Even in my dentist’s office under the facings work! He’s a remarkable guy and I love the result I get.

I’m always bothered when I hear people focusing on what went wrong in their lives, day after day after day. These people are suffering from a chronic bad day, and I hate this for them, because it is absolutely unnecessary. It’s not raining five feet away, but they’re carrying their own clouds around everywhere they go.

What really saddens me about this is that people who create their own misery don’t even realize it’s optional. They think that until their situation is perfect, they have to suffer because of the non-perfect parts. They don’t see that they can let go of the cloud and enjoy the sunshine, because they’re so focused on the rain.

I’d like to encourage you today to think about the rain clouds you sometimes have over your head, and try to imagine that you have the power to just blow and make them go somewhere else. Because in many cases you can.

How can you have a more positive attitude and outlook today?

• Notice if you’re focusing on the negative.
• Find one positive thing in your situation this five minutes.
• Focus on that positive thing for the next five minutes.

Thanks to Pink Blocks for featuring this in the Blog Carnival on Personal Power, and to Widow’s Quest for including this in the Carnival of Positive Thinking.