Brand New Me

I have recently come to the realization that I cannot control other people, but only myself.  To an extent, I knew this before... but in certain areas of my life, I was relying on other things to make me happy.  Now I'm focusing more on improving myself and doing things to make me all-around happier and a better person. 

As a part of this renovation, I am adopting a more positive way of thinking.  I know that it's so easy to get caught up with the negative things that happen in our lives, that we forget to notice the good.  For this reason, I've given myself the goal of journaling three good things about each day.  Today, my list is a little longer because I'm choosing to include yesterday's 'good things' in this post.

• I love that young children have no inhibition and can sing louder than everyone else (without getting to the point where it's obnoxious) and not care what other people think.
• It was so great to play a nice, long, volleyball variation with coworkers after hours.  Not only was it a good calorie burner, but it was fun, relaxing, and good company.
• It's a great feeling when you look in the mirror for the first time after a new, cute haircut.
• I gained confidence when I came up with a plan to overcome an obstacle that was thrown at me at work.  
• There's snow in the forecast, so I may be getting some time off from work!
  
• Story time!  I had a student, a first grader, come into my classroom with his hand raised before he even made it to his seat.  When I called on him, he said, "Today is the luckiest day ever!  I found a dime in my backpack!!"  I asked him what he was going to do with his dime and he proceeded to tell me he was going to spend it.  "What are you going to spend it on?  A dime isn't a lot of money.  You can't even buy a phone call, or a snack from the snack machine," I said.  So then he told me he was going to go home and put it in his piggy bank.  "My mom wants to buy a car," he said.  So sweet!