“The Happiness of Your Life Depends on the Quality of your Thoughts”

By Mickie Zada

I’m a glass-3/4-full type woman. I firmly believe that what we focus on, what we think about, what we believe…expands! Truly, the happiness of your life depends on the quality of your thoughts.

I was probably about 10 when I heard my Dad say, “It’s easy to spot believers in positive thoughts and actions. They are smiling!” I was blessed to have parents who always saw the silver lining in every cloud. As a teenager, they drove me crazy! As a senior, I appreciate all that they taught me.

If you think positive thought is a new-fangled concept, or a recent New Age theory, think again…and google Marcus Antonius. He is credited with the Happiness quote above and he died in 87 BC!

Humans are blessed with the ability to think, deeply. We have the hallowed ability to reason and make choices. The quality of our lives, our Reality, is created by our thoughts. It’s almost as simple as garbage in, garbage out, which was a saying back in the ’70s when computers were becoming household items.

Garbage in, garbage out. Each of us carries a bunch of garbage in our minds. Lessons that were taught (programming, if you will) that no longer serve us. We can hit the delete button, when we are ready!

Back in the ’50s and early ’60s the lessons most young women were taught, more deeply that I care to admit, were those of co-dependence and submission. Today it appears to me that young people are being conditioned in theories of self-centeredness and entitlement. I don’t know how that’s going to play out in fifty years!

Luckily, “We’ve Come A Long Way, Baby!” Women over 50 years old have and are changing the world. We are not our Grandmothers! I remember my Grandma at 67. She was O.L.D., as was the mind-set back then.

Mom was not O.L.D. in her late 60’s. In fact, after all her children were grown, she went to school and became a contractor; She worked for a company that renovated old buildings in downtown Chicago! Mom didn’t even get a driver’s license until she was well into her late 40s, but she knew how to use public transportation to get downtown. She could have gotten O.L.D. Her positive thoughts supported her choice to follow a different path.

The Happiness of Your Life Depends on the Quality of Your Thoughts. Mom did her duty as a “Mom”, which was the way it was back then. Mom’s worked at home, as Moms. Then my Mom decided to live Her life. I’m so glad she did, too. What a strong role model for me and my 4 sisters!

Could she have done that with a victim mentality? I seriously doubt it. Going to school and tackling a career in her 40s could not have been easy. Easy would have been getting O.L.D. like her Mom did….Grandma never would have chosen the path Mom did. I’m sure she did her best to dissuade Mom from her new choices, her new direction.

And, that’s what we are up against when we decide not to live our status-quo lives. Not everyone will support us. Those closest to us will toss out a million reasons why we should not change. Even our sub-conscious minds will conspire to keep us where we are, in the Life Patterns it (our sub-conscious mind) knows to be our status quo, our comfort zone.

Only those with determination, focus and grit will embrace personal growth. It’s easier to whine than to make the choice, backed with resolve and fortitude, to move our lives forward; to maintain good, strong, quality thoughts and make better choices.

Yep! That’s where Marcus Antonius comes in! “The happiness of your life depends on the quality of your thoughts.” Ol’ Marcus was the grandfather of the famous Roman politician and General, Mark Anthony! Even back in B.C., New Age ideas were passed from generation to generation and they worked!!

Look at, even study, your friends and families…pay attention to people in your community. Who do you enjoy supporting and spending time with?

It’s not the ones who live in drama/trauma. All they talk about is how bad they feel, how nothing ever works. They appear to truly believe everyone is conspiring against them… You know the type. They have victim mentalities. They are exhausting to be around. Their lives are disasters… and, that’s their Choice.

That’s the sad part. How we live our lives, how we create our Reality, is our choice.

Not everyone is open to personal growth. Many people are fear-full of expanding their comfort zones.

If you’re reading this, you are not one of those people. YEA You!

I admit, even being conscious of my glass ¾ full mind-set, I sometimes get pulled into negativity and frustration. The difference is, I don’t build a condo there! Bad stuff happens. People and things get under our skin. That’s Life.

The difference is how we respond when those things happen. That’s our Choice.

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