An Attitude of Possibility

When I was 20 I worked in a factory job for a year. Hard work in poor conditions in a bad part of town. It was not a fun place to work. One day I asked a coworker about the same age what he wanted to do when he grew up. His response has stayed with me all these years. You see, he lived in a part of town where living past your 18th birthday was an achievement. His goal in life was to not get shot. He didn’t believe anything beyond that was possible.

While you and I likely don’t face that type of situation, sometime we have an attitude that the only possible outcome is to try to survive. Maybe your survival is financial, living paycheck to paycheck. Maybe you are trying to survive your career. Working for a company you don’t like, doing the same unfulfilling thing everyday. Maybe your survival is family. You are young and living with your parents and siblings. Just trying to get by so you can get out on your own. Or you are out on your own living in an apartment or house you can barely afford.

When your life is all about survival there is no time for possibility. In order to break the cycle you have to be intentional about making changes. You won’t make any change if you don’t think it is possible. I know it’s possible because I’ve seen it done. I’ve done it. There are people that lived in the ghetto that made it out. There are people that started saving money and stopped living paycheck to paycheck.

“Complex shapes emerge as the flake moves through differing temperature and humidity zones in the atmosphere, such that individual snowflakes differ in detail from one another, but may be categorized in eight broad classifications and at least 80 individual variants.” Wikipedia Snowflake Article

Snowflakes are said to be unique but all snowflakes are made of water and each one eventually falls to the ground. Each of us are special but we are all made of the same stuff, heading in the same direction. You may think your situation is unique but it’s not. I believe you are uniquely positioned in a common situation. One reason support groups work is because it helps you see that other people struggle with the same stuff. You don’t feel so alone in your struggle anymore. It makes working through your issues easier somehow. We are all unique; but, we are also all heading in the same direction.

Do you believe it’s possible to break whatever cycle you’re in right now? It’s time to have an attitude of possibility. Today is the day to start thinking and dreaming about what life could be.