Some of you have heard those three words, together just like that, several times, if not a million. It is our family motto! When people ask me how I’m doing, my response almost 90% of the time is, “Happy, Healthy, and Optimistic. Sometimes even a “Opti-freak-‘n-mistic!”.
It was years and years and years ago, (2006) that Paul (my hubhub) and I were driving home together. We had just gotten off the 99 HWY, and were heading down 32nd avenue. We have a huge hill to go up, and as we were climbing, my hubby was talking about his struggles with depression, something he had battled his whole life.
We chatted for a bit, when suddenly he said, “I’m so tired of looking at the world with poo covered glasses. Okay, that’s a lie, he used a different word than poo, but this is a family friendly blog, and swearing isn’t going to happen. Okay. So now you know what he said, let’s continue.
This is the rest of the convo. “I don’t know why I’ve always struggled, but I want a change in my life. I need to decide that my day is going to be better. I need to have a daily motto. I know, healthy, happy and optimistic. That’s my new motto. If people ask me how I am, that’s what I’m going to say, because you will live and act out what you say about yourself.”
With a smile on my face as large as a watermelon, I told Paul that was pretty profound and awesome, and that I was so proud! He beamed at me, I beamed at him, and several other sunbeams burst into a fantastic display of fireworks all around us. Just kidding. But there was certainly a lot of happiness going on in the car!
Now, we both started using that phrase. All the time. And I do mean ALL.THE.TIME. Every day. I’d say to Paul, how was your day? And he would say, “healthy happy and optimistic!” No matter the question, this phrase popped out. We laughed. We giggled. And guess what. We WERE healthy, happy and optimistic.
Our lives changed on that day. We had a fantastic relationship, we had been married for one year, we were happy enough, but Paul felt that he needed more, and that little bit more was a change of attitude.
One day when Paul and I picked up my son Jakob from daycare on our way home from work, he got into the car and I asked him how he was doing. “I’m HEALTHY, HAPPY, and OPTIMISTIC!” was his answer. Paul and I quickly turned and looked at each other, and then in the backseat at Jakob, and then burst into laughter. How awesome was that! He had always heard us using the phrase, and he used it as well!
A couple of years later, my son was asked to make a family crest as a school project. When he was finished, he brought it to me, and I just shook my head and smiled. Around the edges of the crest were the words, “Healthy, Happy and Optimistic”. Wow. Can our words have influence? You bet!
Guess what happens when you say something often enough? You believe it! You act it out! You can’t have a bad day if you say you’re happy. I challenge you to try it. It works.
The point of this is to tell you that whatever you say about yourself, whatever you believe about yourself that is how you’ll behave. If you say positive things, you will be positive. If you choose to say negative things, then you will be negative. Let me also state that most people (including myself) hate being around negative people. Or complainers. Or whiners. Yup. We avoid people like you (if you’re a Debbie Downer, Negative Nancy, Grumpy Gus) like the plague.
Start changing your life today by changing your attitude, and outlook on life. It is a choice. Shine a big honking huge flashlight all over your life, and find any areas of negativity that need to be brought to the light. When you find it, get rid of it. Stop carrying junk you do not need, and it’s too heavy anyway.
Get rid of your past, drop it off. Stop re-living experiences that harmed you. Decide to move forward, and enjoy what life has to offer, because believe me, it has a lot to offer.
Stop being jealous of others, and their lives. Stop comparing yourself to others. Everyone has a different story. We all have pain that isn’t visible to anyone else. No-one needs to know all our secrets.
Choices. It all boils down to that. You choose what attitude to have. You choose to forgive, you choose to forget. You choose to move on, or you can choose to stay stuck right where you are, with your negative attitude. Make a decision today to change it! Remember, a bad attitude is like a flat tire. You can’t go ANYWHERE until you change it.
It’s only too late when you’re dead, so my advice right now is to decide to take on our motto for yourselves:
Healthy, Happy and Optimistic!
Try it – you’ll like it! (I’m giving you a Lovett guarantee!)
Note:
I realize that there are some people out there that struggle with mental health, and severe depression. This article is not meant for you.