Shakespeare said, “Nothing is either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”
Consider the following statements:
- Mary has a tumor.
- I got a new job.
- John’s son died.
- Steward went on vacation to Paris.
- Bill crashed his new Corvette and did not have insurance.
- Peggy won $100,000 in the lottery.
- My wife got a speeding ticket today.
Did you assign value to any of those statements? Did you decide who was lucky and who was unlucky? After reading the statement did you decide, “Oh, that’s bad!” or “Oh, that’s good!”?
Whether or not something is good or bad is determined by our perception. Perception is formed by the things we see, hear, taste, smell, and feel as well as our life philosophy, our beliefs, our way of thinking, and even our personality. That’s why you can take one single event and interview 100 people and come up with several different perceptions of the event.
All of the events above can be looked at from different viewpoints which will conclude that it is good or bad. For example, Mary has a tumor. That sounds really bad! But what if the doctors thought she had a fatal form of cancer but then discovered it was a benign tumor instead. Oh, that would be good!
I got a new job. Well, obviously that could go either way depending on a lot of different facts surround it. Perhaps I was fired from my old job and I got a new one that pays only half the salary. Is it good or bad? It’s good that I have a job, but it’s bad that I don’t make as much.
I think you get the point, but let’s look at the next statement because many of you will undoubtedly say, there’s nothing good about John’s son dying. But again, it’s all based on your perception. What if he had been suffering a terribly painful disease? What if all 4 of John’s children were in a car crash, but only one son died rather than all of them. Again, it’s your perception that places the value of good and bad on a situation.
So here’s the good news – YOU control your perspective! You are in the driver’s seat regarding how good or how bad your life is, simply by deciding to choose the proper perception. It all happens upstairs – in your mind. Your emotions are under the command of your thoughts. You can choose to feel good, positive emotions any time and under any circumstance. No matter what befalls you, no matter what anyone says or does to you, no matter what physical ailments or life events that you go through – you decide if it’s good or bad. The next time something “bad” happens – change your perspective.
Control your thinking – control your emotions. Control you emotions – control your life.














