What's your attitude?

Every morning I love doing the Decodaquote in the newspaper. It's a jumble of letters which, once deciphered, give some pithy quote by some famous, some not so famous, person. There is one clue provided, i.e. Q = D. With that one letter, which often only appears once in the entire sentence, I begin the task of figuring out the puzzle.

Yesterday's quote has me stymied. Not sure why. Not sure why is all that important. The critical issue is I haven't figured it out yet. So, I thought I'd take the easy way out and 'cheat' by looking in today's paper for the solution. I was only going to look at one word for a clue so I could then figure out the rest, but that won't happen. Saturday's solution appears in Monday's paper. Guess I'll have to figure it out on my own.

That's the thing about puzzles. There is a solution. It just takes time, and perseverance, to get to the answer. (Though cheating is also an alternative -- but to cheat, I have to give up, and having been forced to not give up today, I may as well figure it out on my own.)

It's like living in joy. There is no short cut to happiness. (The last time I tried to take one I ended up lost on the road to hell.) Living in joy takes time, perseverance and an unwavering commitment to staying focused on what it is I want to create in my life -- joy or sorrow, harmony or discord, love or war. Happiness is a matter of attitude.

It's not all that difficult. While some days finding the missing ingredient to why I'm feeling down or blue is not all that easy, finding an attitude of gratitude, assuming a happiness stance is a choice I make when I focus on my purpose and ask myself, 'What kind of day do I want to have?' 'What do I want to create in the world today'.

On Friday, someone asked me, "What are you so happy about?"

Had me stymied. Was I happy about something in particular, or was I simply feeling happy because that's the way I was/am/prefer to be?

My eldest daughter was telling me yesterday about a program she watched on happiness. 60% of our happiness attitude is genetic, she said. 10% is environmental and 40% of our attitude we have the power to change. "If we spend a half hour a day consciously thinking positive thoughts, in two weeks there will be a marked improvement in our outlook," she told me.

Hmmm, a half hour a day for two weeks. If I combine that with exercise, my attitude will be sky high and I'll be more physically fit too!

Worth a try.

The question is: What about you? What's your attitude? Life is an adventure best lived in joy or life is a treacherous journey best lived in fear of what might happen if you try to fly?