Don't Play The Game "Ain't It Awful"

Ain’t It Awful?

This past summer our family went on a 21 day quest to drive and camp our way out to my in-laws in Wyoming and back to our home in Ohio. The trip started out as exciting as any other family vacation. We loaded up the mini-van with our luggage, camping gear, kids and dogs. I have joked that this trip should be labeled “Mr. Marriott Goes Camping.” Up until this trip my idea of camping was a hotel with bad room service.

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We traveled our way across Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa and moved smoothly into South Dakota. As we were driving toward our campsite near Deadwood, SD I could feel the transmission of our min-van slipping. I was worried since we were driving at night in the Black Hills. Just as we rounded a corner and saw the entrance into the Fish-N-Fry Campgrounds, the transmission completely gave up. Fortunately, we had just enough momentum to coast the mini-van right to a parking spot in front the camp office. It wouldn’t go another inch.

We were so tired after a long day driving that we rented a cabin just for the night, then decided the next morning to set up our tent and get settled while I called various places to see if they could work on our vehicle. I went to the camp office and got suggestions of repair shops from the camp owners, found a place that I was comfortable with who recommended a local tow truck driver, the local tow truck driver was a great guy who recommended a car rental business that was local and honest. Keeping a positive attitude brought the right people together to help us continue our vacation.

No matter what your situation, the only thing you have to ask yourself is; “How can I make this situation work?” Don’t get caught up in self pity and playing the game, “Ain’t It Awful?” It is so easy to get caught up in the negative and let others feed your brain with their “Ain’t It Awful?” stories.

You know the the “AIA” people. They are the ones who say to you things like, “I got up late this morning, my back hurts, my job stinks, my car broke down too and it never was right after that, ……. You need to get away from them as soon as you can.

Negative people attract negative situations and circumstances. Positive people will experience setbacks too, but they deal with them differently and can move on.

Successful people exhibit the following traits:

1.They surround themselves with only positive people and always remain positive no matter what the situation. You become like the people you hang around with.

2.They realize that the only opinion of them that counts is the one they have for themselves.

3.They have learned to forgive. They forgive those who did it. They forgive those who did nothing. They forgive themselves.

4.They learn from their mistakes, but won’t dwell on them.

5.They celebrate their successes, but won’t dwell on them.

6.They invest in themselves and are constantly acquiring new knowledge and skills by reading books, listening to audio programs, or watching experts. They realize they will not live long enough to learn everything they need to know by themselves. They know they have to learn from the experts!