Bad Thoughts

The Good That’s Already Here

I recently read a quote that has stayed with me:  “The amount of good things in your life depends on your ability to notice them.”

The more I thought about it, the more I realized how true it is.  I’m blessed with a good life. I’m healthy. I’m in a great relationship. My dogs make me laugh every day. I have a career I enjoy and clients I genuinely appreciate.  By any reasonable measure, life is pretty good.

Yet every now and then, I’ll catch myself having a negative thought about someone, something, or an event that really doesn’t deserve that much attention.  Maybe someone says something I don’t agree with.  Maybe a driver cuts me off.  Maybe a situation doesn’t unfold exactly the way I expected.

My mind immediately wants to grab onto it and start building a story.  These days, when I catch that happening, I try to stop and ask myself a simple question:

Why?

Why did that thought pop into my head?  Why am I giving this so much attention?  Why am I focusing on this when there are so many things going right?

What I’ve discovered is that my mind seems to enjoy stirring things up. If there’s no drama available, it’s perfectly willing to manufacture some.  It’s almost as if the ego is uncomfortable with peace. If everything is fine, it starts looking for something to fix, criticize, worry about, or rehearse.  The funny part is that those thoughts usually have nothing to do with reality.

Reality might be a beautiful day, a wagging tail from Sam or Cooper (usually both), sitting on the screen porch with a cup of coffee, hanging in the pool with friends, or just simply being alive and healthy enough to enjoy another day (NOT pushing up daisies!).

But if I’m not paying attention, my mind will gladly pull me away from all of that and into some imaginary problem that doesn’t even exist.  I’ve learned that happiness isn’t always about getting more good things; sometimes it’s about noticing the good things that are already here.

The question is whether we’re paying attention to it.  And today, I’m trying to notice it a little more often.