Change perspective

After my run this morning I was writing in my journal about the fact that I'd slept through to my alarm for the first time in days. 

I went on to describe what I thought was good about it, that I'd got more sleep than I otherwise would have done and therefore felt more rested.

On the flip side I hadn't managed to do my ten minutes of meditation, the latest habit I'm trying to implement, and would therefore have to fit it in later in my day.

So there I was with one good thing about my later waking and one bad thing. This got me wondering whether it was true that one was a good thing and the other was a bad thing, or were they just things?

I'd got more sleep and I felt more rested. Fact. I hadn't managed to fit my meditation in before my run and would need to fit it in during the day if I wanted to keep developing it as a habit. Fact.

How helpful was it to then assign the labels good and bad to those facts?

I find that when I do assign labels, it's invariably the one that I label as bad that takes up the most space and time in my mind.

But what if I manage to find a better time to fit my daily meditation in because I didn't have time to do it this morning? Surely that would turn that bad outcome into a good one.

Good and bad are always subjective and relate to fixed perspectives that you hold.

Keep the good ones but find a way to change perspective for the bad ones.