Is The Glass Half-Full or Half-Empty? It Doesn’t Matter…”It Is Good”

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Photo by Joseph Greve on Unsplash

It is a well-known "tactic" to determine whether someone has a negative or positive attitude.

Just ask him/her whether a glass of water (filled to the halfway mark) is half-full or half-empty.

The person with a positive attitude towards life would normally respond by saying "it is half-full". A person with a negative attitude would tell you that it is half-empty.

Which one are you?

How do you respond to life in general?

People are generally classified as being either "optimistic" or "pessimistic".

How would you see yourself? If you feel you tend to be more of a pessimist...is there anything you can do about it? Personally, I think we shouldn't allow other people to put us into a box so easily. Sometimes it might not even be a matter of being "pessimistic", but just plain realistic. But if we tend to be more negative and we want to change that, how can we do that?

In general, when we observe people, we find that people with a negative attitude see what they see, and that is all they see. People with a positive attitude, tend to be looking for more and look for the potential of growth or improvement.

To become more positive, we sometimes have to be looking for something positive. Sometimes it might not even be there immediately, but it might show up in the long term.

Let me give you an example in the form of a story from Africa.

The story is about a king in Africa.

Many years ago, the king grew up alongside his best friend.

Even after he became the king, they remained friends. But the friend was known for having the habit of always making the comment of "it is a good thing". Whether something good happened or whether it was bad, he would always say "it is a good thing".

One day the king and his friend went on a hunting trip. While the king's friend was loading the gun for the king, something went wrong and a shot went off by accident. The king was hit on the thumb and his thumb was totally shot off from his hand.

The friend looked at the injury for a while and said... “It is a good thing”.

The king was furious about this and gave instructions for his friend to be imprisoned immediately.

Several months later, the king went on another hunting trip.

This time, he went hunting in an extremely dangerous area where he knew he shouldn’t be going; as this area was known for the presence of a very savage tribe of cannibals.

Nonetheless, he went there anyhow.

Within a short while, he got captured by the cannibals.

They tied up the king and started preparing the fire. While the fire was already burning, at closer inspection, one of the tribe members noticed that the king only had one thumb.

This tribe was extremely superstitious, and they would never eat anything that had any physical handicap. It had to be perfect. So they immediately untied the king and set him free.

Being relieved beyond description, the king went straight to his friend to tell him what happened. He gave instructions for his friend to be released from prison immediately.

After profusely apologizing to his friend that he gave the order to put him in prison, the friend once again replied; “it is a good thing”.

In absolute amazement, the king asked him how he could say such a thing! The friend calmly replied; “if I wasn’t in prison, I would have been with you on this hunting trip, and they would have eaten me”.

Conclusion

Maybe it is also time for us to realize that everything that happens to us is not always pleasant. It is not always what we want to happen or things don’t work out the way we want to.

But somewhere in the future, it might contribute to our success and work out for the better. It might be in the form of knowledge or experience gained that is needed for something we need to do.

Maybe it will enable us to speak or act with authority (having been there ourselves) when we need to support someone else going through an ordeal.

But just maybe... we might also consider getting into the habit of saying “it is a good thing”.

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We need more positivity in the world today, and a good place to start is...with ourselves...

Thank you for reading my post. I do appreciate it!

Note: Unless stated otherwise, all images are my own.



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6 comments
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What's in the glass would determine my perspective. If it was something I didn't particularly want to drink, then it would be half full and an effort to finish. If it was something I enjoyed then it would be half empty and would lament I didn't have more.

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Hahahaha...In that case, I hope it would be some you would enjoy...lol!

Thanks for your comment, @shadowspub! I do appreciate it!

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That was a really fantastic story Jaco, and a big reminder to look at our experiences as a good thing, thanks for sharing and stay !ALIVE

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Thank you for your comment, Erik! I'm glad you enjoyed the story.

Yes, I really think we should put in some effort and become more aware of the positive things happening in our lives as well!

Have a great day!

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