“Sometimes what you want is right in front of you. All you have to do is open your eyes and see it.” – Meg Cabot
I’m a glass half empty kind of guy.
Regardless of the situation or circumstance, I often find myself with a rather cynical viewpoint. Some might assume I’m an overly jaded person who likes rainstorms instead of sunshine, but that’s far from the truth I assure you.
I guess you could say, in my four decades here on Earth, I’ve learned and experienced a lot about the workings of society and the people running it. Does that make me a card-carrying member of the Naysayers of America Club? Hardly.
What it does make me is a guarded realist.
Let’s face it, when you’ve been burned before by a situation or person, you start to form an understanding that you’ll never allow it to happen again. But in doing so, you might also be doing yourself a disservice. You might just be ignoring the good that is right in front of you.
I recently found myself walking that fine line – convinced that I had ascertained the feelings of another and therefore jumped to conclusions that were far from accurate.
Solely based on my past experiences, I single handily almost allowed a very valuable relationship to lapse because I was too blind to see what was right in front of me. Was too wrapped up in pre-conceived judgments and biases to understand the disservice I was causing myself for a positive relationship in the future.
Being a guarded realist is one thing. But allowing yourself to believe that similar circumstances will always yield the same negative outcome is utterly naive and counterproductive.
Livelifehappy.com posted this wonderful quote recently: “If you don’t start appreciating what’s right in front of you, you might lose it.”
We’ve all been affected by situations and circumstances beyond our control. But that doesn’t mean past hurts to follow us everywhere we go in life – contaminating future opportunities and damaging potential relationships.
Sometimes we truly need to open our eyes to see that what’s right in front of us might just be exactly what we need.
