Choose Your Mood

A member of our Toastmasters club gave a speech that inspired me to write.  He began by asking whether an unpleasant experience in the morning is likely to dampen your entire day.  To be sure, many people are afflicted by this: You have to rush to get ready for work, but the toddler has just flushed the car keys down the toilet; or the boiler developed a leak just as you have your most important presentation to make to a new client; or more commonly, you are stuck in killer traffic on a rainy day.  Whatever it may be, too many among us will use that sort of diversion as an excuse to be in a foul mood all day.  The scenario goes something like: You have an unexpected event, get to the office and glare at the receptionist, then are curt with your secretary and slam the door to your office.  You are not able to concentrate well on your work, all the time reminiscing and replaying the unpleasant event, which makes you angrier and angrier as you remember the details.  As luck would have it, the general manager is visiting the office, and wants to have a "word" with you.  Oh, no, what did I do now?  You leave your office, anxiously holding the report you submitted yesterday, and meet the GM with a long face.  Nothing untoward happens, but you are still upset.  When you get home, you growl at your wife, tell your children to leave you alone because you had a bad day, and when the cat tries to slink against your legs, you kick it.  So, you had an unpleasant morning and ended up kicking the cat.  Well, makes sense to me!

How about another choice? Could it be that we can choose our mood? Is it possible to deal with these events individually and as they occur?  Surely, some of them can't be dealt with on the spot: If the boiler springs a leak, you have to call the plumber and have it repaired.  But this is merely an inconvenience: While you are at work, your wife can do the deed.  The biggest inconvenience here is a small flood (which can be rectified) and the cost of repair/replacement (which can also be rectified).  Bad traffic?  Rainy day?  Who cares?  If you absolutely, positively have to be somewhere at a given hour, make sure you leave in plenty of time given the weather conditions.  Listen to the traffic report.  Be proactive.  And if you are still late, having done your best, explain and be done with it.  If your toddler has flushed your keys down the toilet on a day when you are rushing to get to work, call the plumber to retrieve them, then resolve not to leave them within reach of the baby.  Etc.  Whatever it is, deal with the events as they come, and compartmentalize them so as not to affect your whole day.  No, you are not having a "bad day."  You are simply allowing yourself to be in a bad mood, and I assure you that a "bad mood" does not exist as such - it is a choice.

So choose a good mood!  Why not, after all...