Half Glass Half Full

by Luke McIlwee, intern

Fare thee well, Luke.
This is Luke's last blog entry as intern for Coors Credit Union. We've appreciated Luke's assistance around the Credit Union. We'll miss him and wish him the best in everything that comes his way. Thanks a lot, Luke, and congratulations on your graduation from high school.

The most predominant purpose dictated by human psychology is the pursuit of happiness. Everything we do, whether it is conscious or subconscious is because it will bring us a certain level of satisfaction at that moment or in the future. Unfortunately people often lose sight of this purpose and experience life as a reality that has not reached its full potential. They will get lost in worry over work, family or other topics which create unwanted emotions and experiences which are unproductive. It’s only by acknowledging and then harnessing your power to control the state of your thoughts that you will be able to achieve true happiness and the life you strive for.

Thought is the medium through which you experience reality. Positive thought will result in positive thinking and thus a positive experience of life and the opposite will result from negative thought. When someone is in a bad mood, it may seem like it is due to their head ache, or recent argument they have been in. Really it is due to an abundance of negative thoughts that have overcome the positive thoughts in quantity and emotional power. Ultimately you have the power to control your frame of mind, and any negative situation can be made positive by finding the good things from it, like how you will grow from a challenging hardship. What doesn’t kill you will only make you stronger, wiser and happier overall as a progressive person.

One of the most powerful ways to enforce positive thinking is the process of putting your life into perspective. No matter how bad you think you have it, or how sorry you feel about your own life there are people who are in worse circumstances. It’s important to get out of your own head and see things from the shoes of someone else. Imagine for a second what it must be like for an orphan growing up in an AIDS infested village in Africa, or a homeless man on the cold streets of Russia. If they suddenly switched places with you would they have even the slightest bit of negative thought? Now think about the life of your favorite sports star or musician and how awesome it would be to have their life. Chances are you are somewhere right in between these two extremes, which is perfect. You know that you should be grateful for what you have because there are people less fortunate than you, and you have something to look up to and strive for. Knowing that a certain level of positive or negative reality is possible can give you unlimited potential to control your own state of mind, and level of happiness.