Is the best time of your life somewhere in your rearview mirror? Maybe just maybe you have closed yourself off from positive possibilities by being focused on the past. Maybe comparisons have conditioned your expectations.

(The following is taken from the 48 Days Newsletter provided by Dan Miller, of Franklin, Tennessee. I was introduced to his ideas years ago by my son Tom. Mr. Miller works in association with Dave Ramsey of financial planning fame.)

"In the 1960's Martin Seligman studied optimism and pessimism. In his experiments dogs would hear a tone and then be given a mild brief shock. Each dog was then placed in a box with 2 compartments separated by a low wall. When the tone sounded, the dog was supposed to expect a shock and escape by jumping into the other compartment. Control dogs that had not been shocked would easily move from one compartment to another. However, Seligman found that the dogs previously shocked, upon hearing the tone, would just lie down and whimper. He hypothesized that they had "learned to be helpless." They never learned that they could easily avoid the shock by simply moving to the other side.

The conclusion of the research was that we often respond to our expectations rather than to the actual circumstances that surround us."

We must be careful about what we "expect" sometimes extraordinary is found in the unexpected.

I love the following quotes...

"People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in the world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can't find them, make them." George Bernard Shaw

I love that quote. Changing circumstances, finding a Plan B is what I call creating an adventure. For years the more conventional term has been making lemonade when life gives you lemons but that is too traditional for me (smile).

"Take time to accept responsibility. Your life is exactly that - It's your life. It is created by YOU. You are constantly making choices, constantly creating new experiences. And although we can be affected by circumstances which seem to be completely out of our control, essentially, we decide the direction in which we walk." Nicolas Watkins

No matter what is happening in your life right now, the way you deal with things, your attitude is happily under your control. Keep in mind that during those times when you are in darkness or "expectations" seem bleak, faith can light the way.