Glass Half Neither

Not everything in the world has to be good or bad. Sometimes it just is what it is.

I learned this lesson from a friend of mine who is very analytical. For him, a 5oo ml glass with 250 ml of water in it is not half full or half empty. It simply contains 250 ml of water. He starts with the facts and then sets about figuring out how he can best use them to his advantage.

If I need to make dessert for the Girl Scout Meeting tomorrow and I discover that I only have two cups of flour, attaching emotional significance to the flour is not going to help me get the job done. The more quickly I can accept the facts of the situation and make appropriate adjustments, the happier I’ll be. So maybe I’ll make fudge instead of the cookies I was planning on. Problem solved. Next?

Sometimes the best way to snap out of a bad mood is to take a page from Dragnet’s Sgt. Friday: “Just the facts, ma’am!”