Attitude matters
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I woke up this morning and stumbled out of bed. My eyes were barely open, which might explain why I stepped squarely into a pile of cat barf. “Ewww,” I thought, “guess I better clean that up.”
Now I could have gotten irritated and focused in on what my day was going to be like if it was off to such a bad start already. I could have turned right around and gone back to bed (after washing off my foot) — refusing to face the day at all. There are a lot of things I could have done. Instead, I chose to just get it cleaned up and move on. After all, the day was bound to get better from there, right?
The same thing applies to all aspects of our life. How we choose to look at things matters, because our attitude directly affects our actions.
Think about debt reduction. What if instead of stepping into some cat barf, I’d accidentally made a late payment on a credit card and gotten hit with a $39 fee? I could bemoan the fee, get depressed, and miss something else. I could figure oh well, this month is blown, so I may as well order that pizza I’ve been wanting — getting myself further into debt. Or I could call up the credit card company and ask them to reverse the fee. Maybe they would and maybe they wouldn’t, but either way I could vow to be more careful in the future and move on from there.
This is exactly why making very small changes in your life can have such large effects. Your attitude and actions are amplified, affecting your situation.
May 18th, 2008 at 7:38 pm
I know this isn’t the point of your post, but you could also give the credit card company a call, and see if they’ll waive the late payment fee. If your payment history has been good, they’ll usually do it.