It’s your attitude towards the problem that’s your problem. Attitude is that big of an issue with most people.
Let’s create a scenario to better help you understand perspective as it relates to your attitude toward any given situation.
I think this following note from a college student to her parents will help:
Dear Mom and Dad,
Since I left for college, I know I’ve been remiss in writing. I’m sorry for my thoughtlessness, so I’m going to bring you up to date in this letter. Before you read it, please sit down. Are you sitting down? Please don’t read this unless you’re sitting down!
Well, I’m getting along pretty well now. The skull fracture and concussion that I got when I jumped out the window when my dorm room caught on fire, are pretty well healed. I only get those sick headaches once a day now.
Fortunately, the fire in my dorm, and the jump, were witnessed by an attendant at the gas station across the street. He ran over to help me, took me to the hospital and continued to visit me there. Once I got out of the hospital, I had nowhere to live because of the condition of my burnt-out room, so he invited me to share his basement apartment with him. It’s sorta small, but really cute.
He’s a very fine boy and we’ve fallen deeply in love. We’re planning to get married! We haven’t set the exact date yet, but it will be before my pregnancy begins to show. Yes Mom and Dad, I’m pregnant!
I know how much you’re looking forward to being grandparents, and I know that you’ll welcome the baby and give it the same tender care and devotion that you gave me when I was a child.
The reason for the delay in our marriage is that my boyfriend has a minor infection that I carelessly caught from him. I know you will welcome him into our family with open arms. After all, he’s kind, and, although not well educated, ambitious. Although he’s of a different race and religion than we are, I know that your often-expressed tolerance will not permit you to be bothered by that.
Now that I’ve brought you up to date, I do want to tell you that there was no dorm fire, I don’t have a concussion or skull fracture, I wasn’t in the hospital, I’m not pregnant, I’m not infected and there is no boyfriend in my life. However, I am failing history and science, and I wanted you to have a proper perspective!
How happy were those parents when they got to the end of that note?! If their daughter had just said, “I’m failing history and science,” they would have freaked out. But in relation to what they thought was happening to their child, failing a couple subjects was no big deal and could be easily overcome.
My hope is that this letter helps you gain a clear understanding that too often we overemphasize situations and make them bigger than they really are.
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