Becoming a creator of circumstances

To act or to be acted upon. That is the question. We were created to act and not to be acted upon. To become creator of circumstances and not creature of circumstances.

Let me explain.

The rain was coming down. It was early in the morning. I was tired and wanted to stay in bed. But there was something itching at me to get up and be productive. The maintenance light on my car had been on for about a week so I called the dealership to see if they had any openings. The man through the phone responded, "Yes we are wide open today."

I headed down to the dealership and brought a book to read. I figured if I had to wait a little bit I might as well be productive. The man at the dealership told me it was the 15,000 mile service and that it would take longer than normal and be more expensive. The new synthetic oil my car uses makes things a little more pricy. "Great, sounds good" I said to myself. Just how I like to spend my saturdays. I don't actually mean that in a negative way. I was actually excited to have an hour and a half to read.

Normally I would have reacted with a bad attitude and wondered how in the world am I going to occupy a whole hour and a half? That would be being acted upon. I chose to take the news with a cheerful attitude and made the best of the time I had. I chose to act. It makes me wonder in what other aspects of my life I may look at things in a negative way or be acted upon. Do I become a "creature of circumstances."

There will always be things in life that do not go the way we plan or hope. That doesn't mean we should get frustrated over that fact and give up. It is our responsibility to make the best of whatever circumstances we are in and press forward with a cheerful attitude. True Happiness is not developed over night. True Happiness develops every little decision after another.