Written by Nikki Keeton, NALJA Vice President

Do you tend to look at the glass half empty or half full? My English teachers have always warned me against starting essays with questions, but I think this simple inquiry carries a lot of weight. How we view our circumstances, whether it be through a positive or a negative lens, directly impacts all areas of our lives: our thoughts, actions, friendships, and so forth. In today’s world, we tend to look at the glass as “half empty” and fixate on the negative. How different would our lives look if we zoned in on the positives instead?

I am guilty of looking at the glass half empty at times. For example, I am currently a member of the meat judging team at Texas Tech University. At the beginning of my judging career, I tended to obsess over the “negative” parts of judging: freezing cold coolers, 4 A.M. practices, etc. This, in turn, pulled my focus away from the bigger picture of what I was doing and affected not only my judging ability but my attitude on a daily basis. Over time, I realized that, despite the hardships of being on any team, I am blessed to be a part of something so much bigger than myself, and I get to do it alongside some of my best friends. This change in perspective has improved my quality of life exponentially.

Being positive is a conscious, everyday choice. The average person is estimated to make around 35,000 decisions in ONE day. Each morning when we wake up, we have the opportunity to make what I would argue is the most important decision of them all: “Am I going to look at the glass half empty or the glass half full today?”

Philippians 2:14-16