Where Is That Pony In The Room ?

This morning while driving to my early eye appointment I found myself frantically clutching the armrest in my car. No, I wasn’t driving! The traffic was just horrendous. Although we left an hour and 10 minutes before my appt and it was a 35 minute drive, we were 10 minutes late. I was literally filled with anxiety by the time we got there.

Do you worry? Assume the worst? Think the worst? I have to admit, yes to all of the above. It is not my desire, it’s just something I battle with. So I started focusing in a new direction. There’s good news, it’s called optimism. When I realized we were late for my appt. I called to let the dr know. Guess what? Despite all of my anxiety, everything was just fine. I could focus on the good part of it. We arrived safely, the doctor’s staff was not the least bit annoyed, etc…. A simple thing but an  example of the cup half full or half empty.

Ronald Reagan used to tell a story about the pony in the room. The story tells of 2 twin boys, one a pessimist and one an optimist. They put the pessimist in a room filled with brand new toys. He quickly got bored and broke many of them. The optimist was put in a room filled with manure. He excitedly asked for a shovel. He said if there was so much manure in the room, there had to be a pony in there somewhere. Throughout Reagan’s presidency the staff would often comment to each other, “where is the pony in the room?”

I am determined to find that pony in the room! The following quotes about optimism will leave you feeling like being optimistic and searching for that pony!

• Write it on your heart, that every day is the best day in the year.  Ralph Waldo Emerson
• The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible world’s, and the pessimist fears this is true.  James Branch Cabell
• You’ll never find a rainbow if you’re looking down.  Charlie Chaplin
• Some people grumble that roses have thorns, I am grateful that thorns have roses.  Alphonse Karr
• Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.  Dr. Seuss
• We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.  Oscar Wilde
• A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.   Winston Churchill
• The more you feed your mind with positive thoughts, the more you can attract great things in your life.  Roy T. Bennett
• Being challenged in life is inevitable, being defeated is optional.  Roger Crawford
• The optimist lives on the peninsula of infinite possibilities, the pessimist is stranded on the island of perpetual indecision.  William Arthur Ward
• I’d rather be partly great than entirely useless.  Neal Shusterma
• My optimism wears heavy boots and is loud.  Henry Rollins

On that note, I certainly don’t want to be useless. To be defeated in my mind because of circumstances I can’t change but rather to possess an optimism that can combat those discouraging thoughts.