HAPPY NEW YEAR! Welcome 2018.

Is the glass half full or, is the glass half empty?  You know the question.  Yet what’s the answer?

The sage question has nothing to do with volume.  It has everything to do with perspective.  Your perspective.  Yours alone.  No one else can view the glass (or anything for that matter) the same way you do.  And vice versa.

Think about it.  You look at the glass.  Through your eyes, through your optic nerves, through your brain imagery.  You are the only person who has this view-point, this perspective.  It’s your eyes, etc., and the imagery is influenced by your beliefs, memory, and experience.  There is no way anyone else could see the glass the same as you.  Therefore, the only “correct” answer to the question is the one you provide.  Someone else’s answer will be “correct” for them.

Half full.  Half empty.  On the level

Bottom line, don’t worry about it.  If you see the glass as half FULL, then you probably expect a full glass.  If you see the glass as half EMPTY, then you probably expect the glass to be empty at some point.  It’s a subtle but important distinction.

Yes, I think it can be safely considered that the folks who see a glass half FULL are more likely to be satisfied with their life than the folks who see a glass half-way to empty.  Why is that?  Ask that tricky question yours truly keeps tossing about:  Do you want to feel good?  If you can answer Yes! then you see the glass on it’s way to being full.  I have yet to find someone who answers “No”, at least directly.  The response will be Of course I want to feel good.  But...”

A person who places a condition on feeling good will have a difficult time reaching that feeling.  Just as your perspective is yours alone, so is your desire to feel good.  Why shouldn’t you feel good?  Are a you a bad person who ought to suffer?  (Many people have a version of this belief as a part of their perspective.)  Must  you fulfill  some duty or obligation before allowing yourself to feel good? (Your time and energy must be given to someone else so they can feel good first.)

But George, it’s selfish to want to feel good, when so many people are suffering.  Well, yes it is.  It’s your perspective, your feeling, and your intention.  Not someone else.  I’ve yet to have explained how one person’s suffering (or refusal to feel good) somehow makes another person feel better.  If you deliberately ate a bad mushroom and had to be hospitalized, would some sick person be released from the hospital, healed?

You’re flying somewhere.  Before you take off one of the crew will demonstrate (or a video will show) how to use the oxygen mask should the cabin lose air pressure.  You will be reminded to place your mask on first before assisting anyone else.  You cannot be of full service to anyone else (child, spouse, friend, whatever) unless you are in good condition.  So, why not extend that practical approach to feeling good?  Doesn’t it make sense that you are more likely to be of assistance to another if you are feeling good?  Now, understand that this does not mean that just because you feel good that others will be able to feel better.  They might.  They might not.  That’s a process up to them.  Perhaps your example will be of use to them when examining their perspective.

A lot of beliefs are in flux world wide.  When a way of thinking is no longer serving a person, dissatisfaction is the first symptom.  It’s not surprising then, when such discomfort is aimed at someone or something else.  I’m miserable because of you!  One extreme solution is to eliminate the source or cause of the perceived suffering.  Perceived because it is only that person’s perception that interprets the suffering (the half empty glass is draining rapidly – time to panic!)

A belief is a thought that is repeated over and over and over and over...gaining momentum and force in perspective.  Perspective can be ruled by long held beliefs (I can’t feel good until...) thus an improved perspective can only be preceded by a change in thinking.

Happy New Year!  2018 is a year you can feel good about.