When exchanging greetings and someone asks, “How are you?” my typical response is something like, “Fantastic, how are you?”

This same exchange occurred one particular morning at my workout, and after I had given my typical response, my workout classmate came back with, “Do you ever have a bad day?”

Of course

Yup, of course I have bad days. In fact, on that particular day when this guy asked how things were going, I actually had crazy itchy feet from camping at the lake two days before.

Seriously, wearing shoes was like putting fire on my feet.

But just because my situation isn’t optimal doesn’t mean I need to complain about it. I can have itchy feet and still be fantastic.

Your choice

It’s my choice to complain or not. I could have said my morning was terrible and my feet hurt and I could use more sleep, but how on Earth would those statements improve the course of my day? And how would my complaints affect those around me?

They wouldn’t improve the course of the day. If anything, statements like that are more likely to make my mood worse.

So why would you want to guarantee that a less than optimal day stays that way?

I wouldn’t, so I choose not to complain.

Do you make that choice too?

photo credit: isherwoodchris cc