The Key to Having a Great Day

I've been having a pretty bad week. It could have been much worse, yes, but classes-wise, I thought it couldn't be any worse. I had to skip the ecology seminar that I like because I had to finish my speech outline last-minute, I didn't do well on calc quizzes (ughahhhh), and I've been so sleep deprived that I took 30-minute naps between classes, which made it a struggle to get out of bed and go to each class afterwards. This all happened because over Labor Day weekend, I got absolutely no work done when I had wanted to do, well, much work.

When I got up this morning, things weren't different. I was dreading my public speaking class because I was so sure that I would get my outline back and see something like, "No effort!" after I had even gone to Emily's office hour about it last week. To dread going to a class because of any reason... it's a horrible horrible feeling. Whereas wanting to go to a class is a wonderful feeling.

Anyway, I opened my eyes at my first alarm. "Ugh........ SPCM.... Haven't exercised... No motivation... So much work piled up... Still don't have my life together... Where'd my enthusiasm go..." Next, I made a routine prayer: "Dear Father thank you for this day... Let me make the most out of today... Thank you, in Jesus' name amen..." What used to give me energy and courage each morning seemed to have lost its magic. But I realized that I had enough time before class to go jogging. I got up, had some Special K, put on my jogging attire, and set out to the quad. At 8:50ish the sidewalks were filled with students. They were all lugging their backpacks and trudging through another dreary morning, or that's what it seemed like to me. I felt like an Energizer bunny breaking through the crowd, huffing and puffing and filled with... pep. It felt awesome. I came back, took a shower, and made it to public speaking five minutes early. Bam. And to my great surprise... got a 50/50 on the outline.

Walking back from class, I thought about all of this. Why was I having such a great day all of a sudden? Some people would say luck. Some people would say that I must've worked harder than I thought. But I say it's just my attitude this morning. I just shifted my focus from everything I was dreading to something that I would really like to do. When I choose to look at all the gifts that God gave me and really feel thankful for them and take advantage of them, God gives me more gifts. Everything is in His hands. He is.

To summarize, the key to having a great day lies here: Have the day on purpose.

Don't let the day have you; don't let the day be forced onto your shoulders. And how do you to that? Start the day on purpose. Start the day doing something entirely because you want to do it. Open your eyes in the morning because you really want to. That didn't happen? Eat Special K because you love to eat Special K. Go run because you really feel like it. Don't want to get that outline back? Remind yourself how much you'll improve because of all your TA's corrections on it and get excited to learn from your mistakes and do well next time. Get excited for every single thing you're about to do. Always do what you really, really want to do. If you don't like what you're stuck with, just change your attitude and you can reveal to yourself that you do, in fact, really, really want to do it.

Have a great day. =)