Joy is an Attitude

Joy is an attitude.

It’s what creates a positive attitude and it’s what allows you to keep a positive attitude.

Joy or happiness is a choice. The world does not make you happy any more than it makes you miserable and sad.

The world does what it does to you, and you choose your response: happiness, misery, anger etc.

No one can make you unhappy. If you are unhappy, you have looked at the situation and chosen to be unhappy.

I know that this can be hard to swallow.

When the world smacks you in the face, it’s not easy to be happy about it!

But perhaps you can find some things within the situation to make you feel happier, more appreciative of what you do have, and not let yourself be totally down.

Joy deep down inside you says, yes, this is bad (whatever has just happened that is difficult for you to deal with), but what is good about it?

Or even, what can I learn from this?

Joy says “I can get over this, I can deal with it … it may take some time, it may be difficult for a while, but I can do it.”

Here is a story about someone who possessed (and presumably still possesses) joy in abundance in spite of hardships and disappointments.

As a career consultant, I had on one occasion a man, in one of my workshops, who not only personified happiness himself, but he spread it everywhere he went.

He was a Chinese engineer. I will call him Paul. On promises of a better life for his daughter, Paul and his family had come to this country.

In China they were told that because of his Ph.D. in engineering and his 12 years experience in a very influential position, he could land a great job here. They came with high hopes and excitement.

This however, as with many immigrants, did not prove to be the case. Paul’s reading and writing in English was almost perfect, but of course, he had a distinct accent.

More than that, his qualifications, extensive as they were, were not recognized here. He could not get any job in engineering.

If he tried for lower positions he was told he was over qualified. If he tried for higher positions he was told he only had foreign credentials.

Many of the new professional immigrants find it amazingly difficult if not impossible to be accepted back into their professional careers.

One would think for a professional of high standing this would be depressing and discouraging and for many it was. There were several quite bitter and angry people came through these classes.

When Paul came through my workshop he was working in a pizza restaurant to support his family.

But Paul had joy in his heart.

He decided that if he had to make pizzas, he would make the best darned pizzas anywhere!

He turned up for work early and left late. He made artistic appearances to his pizza when they were not busy. He came up with new recipe ideas which he then tried to persuade his boss to try.

He even created a Chinese pizza which I wish I had had the opportunity to try!Every day in class Paul would at some point start to tell everyone about his latest Pizza adventures!

It got to the point that as soon as Paul started to speak, a smile appeared on the face of everyone in the class – his enthusiasm was totally infectious.

Paul had had chosen to be a happy person, and although his career was obviously not going the way he had anticipated, and financially he must have been suffering, he found good things, funny things and happy things to focus upon.

When Paul left my class he was weighing up some options that he had uncovered through the exercises we did, so, unfortunately, I don’t know what happened to him.

But one thing I do know – out there somewhere, Paul, whether making pizza or building bridges, is creating happiness all around him.

So I encourage you to do the same.

No matter what difficult circumstances you are in, look for the good things.

Look for what is right, not what is wrong.

Smile!

Share your joy with others and you will find much more than you give away comes right back to you.

Have a happy, joyous and delightful day!

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