In the book Winning Everyday by Lou Holtz, he says that the average person will face 3 “tragedies” a year.

I put focus on “tragedies” because that’s a pretty big word. Do most people really go through 3 tragedies a year? Depending on the person, and the situation – a tragedy can be anything from losing a job, having a death to a loved one, losing an important friendship, not getting an expected promotion, etc.

All of those can be stressful situations, but do they really qualify as a tragedy? Any given situation is only as bad as we let it be. Even in the worst of situations, ones that appear to be a “tragedy”, a positive can be found, and the end result can be good.

Lets take an extreme situation for example. In our current economy, most people would probably classify a tragedy as losing their job. Clearly, there are plenty of negatives that would come with losing your job. However if you lose your job, focusing on the negatives is not going to get your job back.

So what do you do? You focus on the positive aspects:

• This could be a chance for you to explore a new career field.
• This could be an opportunity to go back to school, get another degree (or your first).
• This could be an opportunity to start that business that you’ve always dreamed of.

Now that you have extra time on your hands, you can focus your energy on some of the things that you’ve neglected:

• Health 
• Family 
• Friends 
• Old hobbies

So maybe losing your job wasn’t nearly as bad as you thought it would be. Maybe in the end, with the right attitude, you’ll get through it and be a better person because of it.

All negatives can be turned into a positive, however it is up to you to make that choice! Nobody can change your attitude but yourself.

Having a bad day? Only YOU can turn it around.