Counting our blessings

I think it’s fair to say that our world is riddled with problems, some big, some not so big, and it seems that wherever we look there’s problems, issues, conflict or something else for us to fear or worry about. Even here in our own hometown, much of what we hear and talk about is either over one problem or another, it seems we can’t get enough to complain or worry about. Is that helpful? I don’t think so.

Maybe it’s time we all stepped back and rather than wallow in the doom and gloom, we thought about the other side of the coin and thought about counting our blessings more. Let’s think about the half glass full and half glass empty analogy and give more weight to the half glass full instead of spending so much time on the half glass empty.

The reason I’m raising this comes as the result of several conversations I’ve had with people over the last couple of weeks. One was with my wife last weekend, when we were discussing the mood of many small business owners at this time, and she said there’s no fun in running a small business anymore. I think that’s true. That said, here’s not the place to go into the reasons for that in too much detail, for this exercise I want to touch on a more general issue.

My belief is that if people feel good or satisfied with things generally, better outcomes happen everywhere. Happy people do more, spend more, enjoy more and the result of this is a happier, supportive and more prosperous community all round.

On the other hand, I’m also convinced that if people feel bad about things generally, overall progress suffers. Sad people do less, spend less, enjoy less and the result of this is a sad, despondent, unmotivated community, and that leads to apathy.

Of course, I’m not saying we can change circumstances, but I am saying we can look at them in a better, more positive and more beneficial light. In other words, I’m suggesting if we all adopted a better attitude to how we view problems and issues, we and our entire community would be a better place overall.

Change in the form I’m suggesting starts with each of us. We can decide today whether we want to focus most of our time and energy on what’s wrong around us or on what’s right. We can decide to spend most of our time and energy counting our problems or counting our blessings.

I can’t tell people what to think about anything, but what I can say is that if we all decided to look at every issue we face with a more balanced and considered attitude, a lot of what seems really bad wouldn’t look as bad as it may have at first glance.

In my view also, today’s media is one entity that needs to take a good hard look at itself. I believe they should shoulder a lot of the blame or responsibility for the way people feel about or view the various issues today. It seems they are hellbent on presenting the half glass empty side of issues with a real passion, without any regard for how that might impact on people’s well-being, overall demeanour, even their health etc.

I feel so much better when I take time to count my blessings, I’m sure you will too so give it a try!