I used to think Martha Washington didn’t know what she was talking about. She’s quoted as saying happiness or misery is more about our dispositions and not our circumstances.

Martha, I’m sorry. You were right.

Life is always a lot more fun when our circumstances are exactly as we’d like them to be. How can you not be happy when the world is going your way? But what happens when the circumstances change, when a big ol’ rain cloud shows up in your clear blue sky?

In my own life of late I’ve had a few big ol’ rain clouds showing up and spoiling my view. The clouds shifted my focus and energy in surprisingly different directions. So much so that I am taking a good hard look at my own personal disposition.

“I can’t wait for this black cloud to pass so I can go back to being happy again.”

THANKS, ADVERSITY I stunned myself as I realized what I had said. I realized in that moment I had made my own happiness contingent upon the conditions of the world around me. Happiness was something outside of me, something that happens to me, something out of my control.

Adversity is very humbling, especially when you think you’ve got life all figured out. Life evolves, and as it does so does our opportunity to evolve with it. No one welcomes adversity, but it tends to show up anyway. What we do with it is up to us.

In any moment we are offered a choice as to how we decide to see any situation. Yes, it is a choice, and our choice will be based upon experiences and expectations. But it is our choice, and we all have the ability to make better choices, different choices, choices consistent with who it is we really are.

Sometimes life hands us lemons, and we tend to give the lemons all the attention, like a screaming infant in the supermarket. But in the grand scheme of your life, are the lemons you’ve been given worthy of souring the sweetness of the rest of your life?

Happiness is all about perspective.

It’s your choice.

It’s a great day to be you!