Life isn?t always the wonderful, perfect, lovely, and beautiful world we always hoped for. Sometimes, it?s even better!

Ok, don?t mind my semantical opening. I?m just trying to make a point. You see, the world doesn?t exist without us first recognizing it. Sounds crazy, right?

Let me explain.

The reality we experience is the only reality that exists to us. Mainly that means that we decide how we act and react to situations. You?ve probably heard this before, but no one makes us do anything we don?t want to.

You may recall your parents saying something like ?You?re driving me CRAZY!?, but in the end you weren?t the ones driving them crazy. You were acting badly perhaps, but they were the ones making the conscious choice to get upset.

I know what some of you are thinking. Trust me, Mike, I REALLY did drive my parents crazy. Well, maybe that was a bad example. ;-)

So, what does all this have to do with staying positive? In its most basic sense, remaining positive is a choice we either make or don?t make. Actually, it?s a choice we have to make.

By choosing to stay positive, you are in effect choosing to see the ?lighter? side of life. By choosing to stay negative you are going to always see the bad.

It reminds of an idea I had once. I was going to put together a pessimist club. The problem was, nobody thought it would work out. (boom boom cha)

All joking aside, make a conscious decision today to stay positive and don?t let negative things bother you. Hold strong, and you can accomplish more in your life than you ever thought possible.