Dirt Off Your Shoulders

Someone once said, ~Life is dull only to dull people.~ Without a doubt, there are people out there who exude a less than enthusiastic mindset whereby the positive vibe you and/or your circle of friends are experiencing is considerably lowered leaving you bummed out as the level of excitement is suddenly sucked out from the once joyous atmosphere. I think it would be safe to say each one of us are friends with or at least know someone who is the proverbial glass half empty cynical type person and no matter how hard you try to put a positive spin on certain aspects of life he/she focuses on the negative. For it's these types of people who you try to avoid on a semi-daily basis so that you won't in all intents and purposes crossover into the darkside.

Let me ask you this question, have you ever had someone completely ruin your morning, noon, and/or night simply by saying something negative. It's a type of negativity you tend to take personal offense to because before you ran into/talked with this particular person you had a smile on your face with a noticeable spring in your step. We've all quite possibly been in this situation and your whole attitude can most definitely change within a blink of an eye. The nice, calm , sweet seemingly gentle demeanor you started out with has now instead been replaced with a grumpy, irritated, sour, significantly harsh individual whose demeanor reflects that of either Ebenezer Scrooge from Charles Dickens classic A Christmas Carol or Dr. Seuss' The Grinch.

As said before, your whole day can be ruined by one person saying and/or doing something whereby planting the tiny grudge seed within you. Thinking about it, the tiny grudge seed can fester inside you and as time passes it grows causing you to lose focus mentally. We've all at some point been thrown off our game, so to speak, to where it just doesn't affect us mentally as it can affect us in a physical, emotional, and even spiritual way as well. Essentially, your left physically tense not being able to relax, emotionally stressed out because you let the words he/she get to you, and you end up losing yourself spiritually holding on to the anger you’re feeling, which is quite possibly many of us have experienced or are currently experiencing at the moment.

For the question can be asked, do you consider yourself to be a dull person but have no way of knowing if you actually are? If you think about it, there are certain tell tale signs that may possibly confirm your infinity to being a dull person. 1.) Have you ever been excited about arranging furniture because you wanted to change things up? 2.) Has a friend ever told you that he/she would rather watch paint dry than hang out with you? 3.) You think photoshop is the greatest thing ever invented and creates works of art to display for others to see. 4.) Does sitting in front of a computer on Friday/Saturday night and logging into either Friendster, Myspace, Facebook, and/or Twitter for hours on end sound enjoyable? Of course, I'm just kidding on # 1, 3, and 4.

About 2 weeks ago, one "my kids" at work stepped off the school bus and walked up me with a smile on his face asking me why I was so dull. It was a question that I took personal offense to leading to a stern lecture for the young man. In any case, when you work with kids they want to have fun and yet there is difference in defining what kids see as fun whereas an adult sees it as dangerous to the point of hurting themselves. For a couple of days, I stewed about it and let what he said get to me to where I not only kept my focus on that rude comment, but I took a survey among the rest of "my kids" at work, which was a big mistake. In the end, if I've learned anything concerning that particular situation its that I should take comments like his and brush them off like dirt off your shoulders.