I was reading through Financial Samurai's post, An Ambulance Screams By, Do You Feel Happy Or Sad?, and it made me think how I myself have changed in my attitude towards looking at the difficulties in my life.

My change in attitude came not through an "a-ha" moment but over the course of years I have learned through experience the power of seeing more of a positive side of the world. Not that I don't see the reality of it as well.

I've always had kind of a pessimistic look at life and always saw the hazards before I saw the hope in a situation. This style of thinking did a lot to prevent me from taking chances and that stopped me from having a better self image of myself. If I didn't think it would work out for the best then I should do it and since I shouldn't do it then I wasn't worth the job or idea in the first place. Like a dog chasing it's tail, I went around in a circle and just ended up feeling crazy.

However, my partner would say over and over, "You have already failed by not even trying, so why not try it now? You have nothing to lose."  Over the years I heard this over and over and sometimes it didn't work out but she was right. When I didn't try something that I wanted to, I failed. But when I tried to do something that I wanted.. I was still a winner because I broke past the negative and gave it good heartfelt try.

I think that the Financial Samurai is speaking along those same lines and they also can be applied to living a frugal life as well. When the cars break down and they both need to be fixed, this gives us a chance to look at the positive, to look at a hopeful situation whereby we can learn and grow in our own creativity. A car breaks down and opens up the chance to try public transportation, riding a bike to work or finding out from co-workers who lives nearby to get a ride with.



But was that creative endeavor time wasted? I don't think so, because I am retraining my brain and my attitude to first think of the positive response to the situation. I still live in reality and no matter how many angles I take to look at a situation sometimes there isn't a way to get around it creatively and I will just have to plow through as best I can.

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