Today, reviewing my Google notes, I found this quote I wrote down some time ago with the intention of sharing it in the blog:

The pessimist complains about the wind;
the optimist expects it to change;
the realist adjusts the sails.

William George Ward

What do you think? It´s a good reminder of the different attitudes we can adopt when facing problems in life:

• We can play the victim and complain about what´s happening to us (but without doing anything to change it)...
• We can cave in, and naively hope that things will get better by themselves...
• Or we can take action, and aim to make the best out of the situation.

This also reminds me of a book I read years ago (which I later donated during one of my decluttering sprees, something I regret), titled Who moved my cheese?, by Spencer Johnson.

Through telling us a story about some little mice and a maze, the author highlights the importance of not becoming too comfortable assuming "the cheese" (= whatever we desire in life) will always be there. Instead, he encourages us to stay alert so as to detect when change is coming, knowing that it´s natural for some fears to appear as we don´t know how the change will affect us, and to try and adapt to it quickly, because being open to change (= believing the change is going benefit us) as opposed to resisting it (= believing it´s going to damage us) can bring us very positive results and valuable learnings.

How easy is the theory, isn´t it? "Don´t be afraid and embrace change; it will turn out well for sure". The practice is an entirely different thing: fears don´t dissolve magically just by the mere fact that we know they´re there. But, using the appropriate tools and doing the necessary work, we can get to understand and manage our fears much better, so that we can take ownership of our own decisions.

Are you currently going through, or do you think you may soon be going through, a period of change? I am; we could say that at this moment, my cheese is moving. Or rather, the wind is changing, and I´m trying to find the best way to adjust my sails...

(Double page photo of one of the Junior Woodchucks books my sisters and I used to read as kids, featuring a fabulous pirate ship. Can you tell that I have zero experience in sailing? I may have to ask my friends Seán and Dee for a crash course on the basics.)