You’ve got to just love ralph! He is THE true optimist, I
believe.
I am not sure how you get from annoyed to inspired?
Frustrated to motivated?
And I do realize it is ALL about
attitude.
Often mine stays more on the annoyed side, when challenged
.
That smiling thru gritted teeth type attitude.
Inside seething
type.
But I had an instance yesterday that could have easily stayed
annoyed,
but changed into something different.
Like
trying to determine which line to get into at the grocery store,
when
none of them seems like a good choice.
OR when you get into a seemingly
GOOD aisle, only to find out there is
a problem and all the other lines
are moving steadily
while you are stuck and not moving, and your ice
cream is melting or
your knees hurt or you have to pee really bad. Or
the kid behind has
been screaming for 20 minutes and you aren’t even
sure WHY you are
in the store let alone THIS aisle.
Remember my
occasional thoughts on small children !
Such was the thoughts yesterday
on which lane to get into at the gas
station, when clearly everyone was
trying to get into the best moving
lane before the gas price changed.
Which it looked like it would do
any second.
8 lanes full of
cars, some 3-4 cars deep. We choice one with only one
car and felt so
fortunate to get it. You always have to choose the one
that pumps on the
same side of your gas tank. That often limits you.
And my personal
preference? People who use credit cards so they
don’t have to go inside
and you wait for them to come out because
THEY are stuck in the line
inside to pay, and behind the person buying
cigarettes, or getting
lottery tickets.
But we chose.
It became abundantly clear
immediately we had made the wrong choice.
Ahead of us, was a new model
red shiny expensive Cadillac. Outside his
car was an elderly man.
Dressed impeccably in pants and shirt, nice
shoes. Obviously well taken
care of. Nice haircut on a shock of thick
white hair.
He stood
at the pump with his credit card and was experiencing
trouble. As I
watched him fiddle with his card for several seconds,
feeling annoyance
rising in me, because surely the gas was going to
jump that $.31 before
we could get ours pumped, I realized what he was
doing.
He was
trying in vain, to put his credit card INTO the place where
your receipt
comes out. He tried over and over. He turned it around,
upside down,
backwards and forwards. He tapped it. He looked at it.
All done is slow,
confused motion. It would not work. Obviously.
I got out of the riders
side of our truck and went up and said quietly
to him, “You are putting
it in the wrong place”. And took the card
from him and put it in where
it belonged. It would not work, even in
the right place. It kept showing
some comment I can’t remember, but
the upswing was…. It would not work.
I had seen this when I used to
use my credit card terminal at my shop.
People whose cards were
slightly bent, from being in their pocket, or a
man’s who was in his
wallet in his back pocket will not read. Slight
bend will make it not
read right and will not take it.
So we had
to get the computer to release what we had tried to do. The
man was
oblivious to what I was doing. But grateful I was doing it.
I felt my
anxiety and frustration ease to calm.
I told him he would have to pay
inside with his card because of the
bend to it and showed him what I
meant.
I don’t believe he understood what I said, but accepted
it.
I asked him again quietly if he could pump the gas OK. He
nodded.
He got the nozzle into his tank. I pushed the grade button he
wanted
and went back to my truck.
We watched as he got his gas
and went into the station. Knowing any
minute the gas probably was going
to raise before we could pump ours.
We rather quietly mentioned it to
ourselves. And why when all the
other lanes were moving, we had to get
behind the old man.
Still not mad, but thinking of the chosen
lane.
A heavy sadness fell over me and my eyes began to tear up, as
my
farmer simply said…” we are behind him, because he needed help
and
maybe you were the only one who would stop to help him.”
Don’t be annoyed, be inspired.
Don’t be frustrated, be
motivated.
Be motivated to HELP someone who needs help. Even if your gas
will
jump $.31 a gallon.
IT IS ALL IN THE ATTITUDE.
I
can’t even begin to feel his frustration. He was JUST SIMPLY
…….LOST in
trying to pump gas.
My sadness at the simple things we all take for
granted, and this old
man could not do.
THE WAY YOU RESPOND IS
DECIDED BY YOU.
In my fondest, Trisha
THE DAILY
MOTIVATOR
Friday, August 22, 2014
Let it push you
forward
+++++++++++++++++++
You don't have to be
annoyed.
You can be inspired.
You don't have to be
frustrated.
You can be motivated and determined.
The
way you respond is not dictated solely by the situation.
The way you
respond is decided by you.
No matter what has happened, your
attitude is a choice that's made by
you.
Instead of letting the
interruptions, distractions and frustrations
get you down,
you
can just as realistically choose to let them push you forward.
It's natural to assume that negativity must make you negative,
and that
you must have some kind of positive reinforcement in order to
be
positive.
But that's not the case at all, because you can choose to
move
positively forward no matter what.
Decide that
you'll let both the good things
and the bad things push you
ahead.
And be amazed at how far you can go.
Ralph
Marston
trisha is my mom.
when i read this.
i knew it would be my coffee hour today.
welcome to coffee hour.
welcome to this Sunday morning.
just BE.
robin.
