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Worrying
(Photo by Naty Rive)

Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be. - Abraham Lincoln

My friend Tony once said that if he ever ended up in a wheelchair then he would kill himself. In the eighties, he crashed his single-engine plane and broke his back. He was paralyzed from the waist down and confined to a wheelchair. So, did he kill himself? Thankfully, no. Over twenty years later, he’s still alive and not even close to considering suicide. He is happy because he chooses to be happy.

I have been disabled all of my life. I was born with a rare neuromuscular disease that now confines me to an electric wheelchair and requires me to use a ventilator to breathe. Many people in a similar situation to mine have given up on life. I can relate because when I started using a ventilator at age twenty-one I wanted to give up also. For six months, all I did was stay in bed and watch television. Have my circumstances changed since then? No. I changed my perspective. Each day, I choose how I am going to relate to my circumstances. For the most part I choose to be happy and productive.

What situations cause you to worry? Can you change your perspective and make a positive choice to be happy despite your circumstances? Happiness is a choice. Will you make that choice today?

Forward Habit’s series on worrying:

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