2013
Make the Choice: Attitude
June 2013

“Make the Choice: Attitude,” New Era, June 2013, 24–25

Make the Choice: Attitude

So, How Was Your Day?

By David Dickson

Church Magazines

Choose your path to a great day.

As soon as you get up in the morning, you know it’s coming. Somebody is going to ask how your day is going. You’ll want to answer that it’s going well, but the trouble is, how do you really handle all those curveballs life keeps throwing at you? Well, when you choose to make the most of whatever comes along, your attitude may make all the difference. You can choose to act—in a positive way—rather than be acted upon (see 2 Nephi 2:26).

attitude decision tree

Illustration by Bryan Beach

Start Your Day

  • It’s Saturday! You’ve been looking forward to today all week long. You and some friends have big plans to go mountain biking. However, despite the sunny forecast that had been predicted, it’s raining buckets outside. What do you do?

  • Go back to bed and pull the covers over your head. Life’s not fair!

  • Contact your friends and see if they’d be up for something different. They now want to go roller-skating, but you’ve never tried that before. It sounds kind of boring. What do you do?

  • Tell them no thanks. Spend the rest of the day complaining about the weather.

  • You head to the roller rink, and skating is actually kind of fun. You’re about to go home when your cell phone buzzes. Your ward needs help with a last-minute service project to help a family moving to the area. Can you come?

  • You’d rather not. Normally you like service projects, but your plans were already thrown out of whack today. You turn down the offer and head home.

  • Sure thing. You spend the next hour helping the family unload their moving truck. You notice the teenager in the family has hardly said 10 words the whole time you were there. He seems kind of shy. What do you do?

  • While you know it can’t be easy moving to a new area, you could really use some time to just relax. You say good-bye and spend the rest of the night watching a movie on your own.

  • You invite the new guy over to shoot some hoops. You plan on it being a quick visit, but you soon realize he’s pretty cool once you get to know him. You spend the next two hours talking while you play ball.

  • “So, how was your day?” What’s your answer?

“Today was GREAT!”

“PRETTY GOOD, overall.”

“It was OK. Could have been better.”

“LOUSY. Worst Saturday ever.”