Contentment & Attitude

I'm not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.  I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty.  I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.  I can do all this through Him who gives me strength.  Philippians 4:11-13 (NIV)

I've always been a big believer in having a glass-is-half-full type of attitude.  If you focus on the negative, you will become consumed with the negative.  If you focus on the positive, you're always hopeful.  I still believe it.

All of us need an attitude adjustment every now and then.  This Spring I was forced to give myself one.  I was becoming consumed with negative thoughts of my job.  I was bored to tears and very frustrated with the fact that it suddenly occurred to me I was about 25% court reporter/75% secretary, and more importantly 85% bored.  I have nothing against secretaries or if I was one 100% of the time, but I went to school to be a court reporter.  I went to school to type really fast on my shorthand machine...not to answer the telephone, with a majority of the phone calls intended for another office within the courthouse, and not just to sit here and look busy.  I was drowning in this revelation.  And it was really getting me down.

We had our annual court reporting seminar in April and I got to hang out with my former circuit girls.  I literally puked out my frustrations with them and others.  And I don't know if it was that exercise, spewing from my lips to people that understood how frustrated I was, that finally did it or what, but on the way home, it clicked that I had two choices.  I could either accept my current position, the good and the bad, and change my attitude about it, or consume myself with pity and dread coming to work every single day.

I'd also been struggling with painful arms, shoulders, neck, wrists and hands.  For some reason, I suddenly made the connection.  If I was doing more of my actual court reporting work, I am not sure my upper body could take it.  For real.  Could I even handle being 75% court reporter?   If I get what I want, I may not be able to handle it physically.  Duh.

It was like God was telling me:  Sarah, shut up and do your job, the one I have given you.  I put you there, I know what is best for you.  Just be content with the situation and find the good.

So, here I am, content with the situation as best I can be.  I have a very good job with stability.  I am fortunate to at least being doing a little of what I enjoy and went to school for.  Some are never blessed with such an opportunity.

None of us know what tomorrow holds.  I don't know if my body could take the physical demands of being a full-time court reporter anymore.  But I can do the job I have right now.  After the change in attitude and outlook on the situation, I'm fully content (well, almost) with the situation at work.  (There's always room for improvement: see glass half-full rationale.)

And my goodness, when I look around outside my own little box, I can see many folks who have a lot to be depressed about.  Wouldn't they love to trade me for just one day of my 'frustrations'?

The definition of contentment is: the state of being happy and satisfied.  Our outlook on life and attitude has such a powerful hold over the joy in life.  It is mostly within our control.  Today, I choose to see the good.  Today, I choose contentment.