Improvise. Adapt. Overcome.

I woke up in good spirits today, yet all I could think about was quitting.  Good spirits and quitting, what a winning, contradictory combination.  Insert sarcasm here.  Well stop the presses and read me out before you pass judgment.  After beginning my day I could not seem to get the notion of quitting or quitters per se out of my mind.  And to no avail, I even tried engaging in intellectual conversation with my four-year-old son to serve as some sort of distraction. So quitters/quitting it is. 

Whether it is quitting life, love, jobs, school, etc., why give up?  When I say quit, I understand that people fall out of love and/or find better jobs; but what makes it get to the point that quitting is better than compromising.

I wonder is it that life has gotten so hard that you find it easier to end your life than to struggle and keep going. If you still love someone wholeheartedly, is walking away from that kind of love easier than regret. Are work and school so trying and unimportant that it would be easier to just be without income or uneducated.

Excuse me for my seemingly high-and-mighty attitude but I am in no way looking down at those who prefer to stop, however, I am optimistic so it tends to boggle my mind. So much so that the continuous use of the word "quit" is starting to darken my mood.  Nonetheless, those that choose not to continue is what I opted to say instead of, you know, that word. 

People have said that walking away and letting go is one of the hardest things that there is to do, but personally, I think hanging in there and trying to find a solution amidst the roadblocks is actually harder.  Maybe in extreme cases that may hold some validity, but in the ones described above I think the more difficult task is to find a reason to say yes and take actions to make that yes worthwhile.

Historically speaking, we are a nation of not giving up. Just look at the attacks of September 11 or the ever-lasting aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, these are clear examples of catastrophic events intended or presumed to break spirits.  However, they are also distinct occurrences of resilience where people of this country, and of those cities impacted, chose to not  - dare I say it - quit.  Situations that brought people together instead of tearing them apart.

Life. Life is hard. There is no simpler way to put it.  It is only consistent in the fact that you never know where it will take you; it can take you up, down and all-around. It will test you beyond your limits. If it were easy and mundane it would be boring.

So even when things seem to have hit rock-bottom, one shouldn't get discouraged, instead encouraged because you can only go up from there.

Equally, love and life are challenging with the exception that in love there is a partnership that can make all the difference instead of facing-off alone.  In the event that two people still love each other, there is still a reason to courageously crusade through the less-than-pleasant moments.  A relationship can become as stubborn and complicated as Christmas tree lights after being in the attic for 11 months out of a year; but just like those lights, with patience and persistence, they eventually become untangled and radiant once again.

Therefore, problems in relationships are going to arise. It's inevitable.  But with trust, love and communication, those problems will only bring about opportunities to find solutions that work for those two individuals.  If we look at our elders that are fortunate enough to still be together after 30 plus years, it has definitely not come easy.  The difference is they chose to let their love be more powerful than that of any outside factor, which often-times it is the contrary, which is why at times devoted couples give up.

In the famous words of Mark Twain, "The man that does not read good books has no advantage over the man that can't read them." I find no good reason to senselessly opt to stop educating one's self because ignorance really isn't bliss. And that's all I have to say about that.

So when the days that nothing seems to be going right and freeing yourself of life and the responsibilities, obligations and or additional spin-offs that come with it seems like the best route to take, remember this: you can't stop the storms from coming, but you can either choose to let them affect you or learn to dance in the rain.

And if my random thoughts can't help, just watch the video below as it seems to lift my spirits at times.

Is optimism all it's cracked up to be?

Is the glass half full or half empty?  Depends on who you ask. For the eternal optimist, the glass is and always be half full, but for the latter, the doubtfuls of the world, a half empty glass is fine by them.  In my own litmus test for life, I choose A, the ever-optimist. 

Why wouldn't I choose to be hopeful in a world where hate, despair and ignorance are too often the norm.  A little reliance on positivity may just be what the doctor ordered. In the face of adversity and disappointments I elect to not only look at the brighter side, but also to be the change I want to see in the world. I am not saying that I will be the next Mother Theresa, far from it, but I am banging away at being better. I am striving to be the change I want to see in my world.

If fortunate enough to have those elders that fill us with wisdom from childhood, we can recall being told: "roll with the punches", "what doesn't kill us makes stronger", and the list of cliches goes on and on.  However, as children do we really understand the depth of those words, let alone the impact they may have on us as adults.  And is it really as forthright as just accepting the advice of our predessors and living a better quality of life or not? Who knows.  Maybe it can be as simple and enpowering as listening to "Gonna Fly Now", also known as the Rocky Theme song, but what does it all mean? I think they were meant to serve as guidelines to keep our faith in order to prevent us from letting life get the best of us then and now.  To some they are, will and always will be just words that are lackluster in the attempt to inspire, but to others those words are everything. Simple words can make all the difference; such as a smile, song, kiss or even a hello.

Therefore, today in true self-encouraging disposition, I scoured the internet to satisfy my quench for news, gossip and inspiration and I was drawn to the words of activist, Malcolm X.  I quote: "If you are experiencing resistance, you must exert some persistence, in order to improve your existence."   And there it was, the answer to all of my fears, doubts, questions and concerns - borrowed words that became the steering wheel of my perception of life today.  Today I will take the bull by the horn.

Instead of submitting to my woes, I choose to take encouraging words of this historic figure and look at today as a good day.

And so I ask again, is it really that simple? Absolutely not, there is no real formula in being more optimistic. The secret to optimism is the adventure of finding a recipe that works for you. My formulaic answer to all that gets me down is to: Eat, Pray and Love.  I feed my soul the necessary to keep me going and a daily Snickers bar seems to help too.  I pray to have the strength to both begin and endure the day's journey. And I love, I mean really love all that matters to no end.

My outlook may seem like a bunch of self-help nonsense to others, but what is the alternative, cynisicism, I'll pass. As I sail through what I refer to as my "wonder years", the period in which I am purposefully navigating through life and all of its splendor,  I remain upbeat. In turn, I dedicate today's blog to the most inspiring, thought-provoking cynic in my life: here's hoping.