Friday, August 20, 2010

Is Your Outlook On Life A Habit?

I would go out on a limb and say it is. Dave and I have been making some changes in our lives as individuals which spills right over into out life as a family. What I'm finding as we tackle the things we want to improve is that the way we see our day-to-day life is a habit.

I see things through rose colored glasses, almost always seeing the bright side. Dave tends to lean toward what is not pleasing him, the things he wants to be see improved. Now don't get me wrong, there are things I want to be better but I don't talk about it much, I just do what I think it will take to change it. Dave is not the doer in the same way I am.

Here is where the habit theory comes in, we both have our knee-jerk reaction to whatever it is. For me, it's usually whatever is good in the situation and what's not, well, I do something about it. Dave will typically get right to verbalizing whatever it is about the thing or situation that he doesn't like. He may add in something positive or of value, but going down the "what's wrong" road first, makes the compliment seem contrived, basically, not sincere. It's my observation too, that Dave doesn't do anything about what's wrong. He simply wants to make the point and keep living with the pain. This is clearly a habit, the way we have both done things for so long, it's just what we do...how we see things.

What do you think, is your outlook on your day to day life a habit? Can you change it? Do you want to? I have one more piece to this theory that I'll post next week. Let me know what you think, I really am interested.

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