half empty

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Half Full Or Half Empty, What Kind Of Person Are You?

You’ve likely heard of looking at something as being half empty or half full. People who have a positive view on life are usually half full people. Negative people – those who focus on the problems of the world – are usually half empty. 

half full or half empty, what kind of person are you

I would say that I’m more of a half full person. Even when things are not the best, I can usually find something that is good about them. 

But I have to say that my phone is more of a half empty device now. 

It wasn’t always like this. My phone has worked really well. I’ve had no desire to upgrade to the latest and greatest iPhone … well, until lately. 

Now my phone can barely make it through a day on its battery. It’s strange because this is not something that has happened gradually … or at least I haven’t noticed a gradual decline. 

It just started happening that my battery was running low near the end of each day. Now it needs a charge partly through the day. 

I didn’t know what the problem was so I took to Google. 

I found out that battery life does deteriorate over time. My phone is three and half years old … which in people years isn’t much, but in dog years would be like thirty. In phone years that translates to about fifty-five years.

My research also gave me some tips of what I could do to help preserve my battery life. Some of them were helpful; one I found strange. 

The tip was to put the phone in airplane mode. In airplane mode you can’t receive phone calls, texts or connect to wifi, but it really reduces the battery usage. In other words, if you render your phone useless, this will preserve your battery. Great tip!

I checked out the battery tab in my settings and discovered something very interesting about my phone. My phone is only running on 89 percent of its battery. In other words, when my phone says it is fully charged, it’s really only at 89 percent. 

My phone is a half empty kind of phone. 

Even when I first take it off its charger, I’m not getting 100 percent of battery out of it. 

The setting didn’t say that the battery was in bad health, I just took it as it was old. The battery doesn’t have the same stamina it used to. 

I kind of understand how my phone feels because I don’t have the same stamina I once had either. There are times when I could go for a nap in the afternoon to recharge myself. 

The difference is I’m not looking to exchange myself for a new me.  

But I did hear that my cell phone company has a good deal on the latest iPhone. Maybe I need to look into getting a new one and sending my current phone off to cell phone heaven. 

Here’s the thing: How you look at life now could have something to do with what you believe about the future. If you believe that it all ends when you die, then the older you get the more half empty life is. But if you have your faith in Jesus Christ, you have an eternity to look forward to. So, as this life runs down, you still can view life as half full. I recommend it.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: Are you a half empty or half full person? Leave your comments and questions below. 

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The Secret of Optimism

I think optimism is something that every one of us would like to possess. Optimism is a “hopefulness and confidence about the future”. It is being hopeful of a successful outcome.

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I wrote that definition not because I think some people don’t know the meaning of the word. I wrote it because optimism is such a foreign concept to some, that seeing a definition might stir them to the possibility of experiencing an optimistic thought.

Yes, some people are “glass half empty” folks and others are “glass half full”. It’s how we are wired and for good reason.

I always say that if Lily followed my thinking we’d have lots of fun but we’d be broke, and if we did things Lily’s way, we’d have lots of money but man, life would be sooo dull.

We need both perspectives. We’ve been given one, but we need to appreciate the other.

Regardless of how we are wired, there are times we need to see good in the bad, and find contentment in disappointment.

The other day, I came home from work and, as usual, pressed the button to my garage door opener from the street behind my house, so that when I turned the corner onto my street and reached my driveway, the door was already up.

It’s like I’m driving into the bat cave. If my neighbours looked out the window they would wonder why my garage door goes up when there’s no car in sight, only to then see my bat mobile (I mean, my Hyundai Accent) come bombing around the corner, up the driveway and into the cave.

I bet my associate wishes he had one right now. But that’s not the point of my story. … I got out of my car and with my back to the garage door, I pressed the button for it to go down.

As I fumbled for my keys to open the house door there was a huge bang. I jumped, and almost dropped the keys.

I couldn’t tell if something really big and heavy had dropped or whether the ammonium nitrate in our fertilizer triggered a small explosion (our lawn has been doing well this year).

As I looked around the garage, I noticed that a wire on my garage door was loose. Then I saw that the spring for that door had broken. My immediate reaction was, “No way! This couldn’t happen at a worse time.”

You see, we had just booked a company to come and replace our other garage door for the next day. Now, we would need the second garage door fixed as well.

I just shook my head. But then I thought, “Maybe the timing on this couldn’t have been better. The repair guy is coming tomorrow; he can fix both garage doors in one visit!”

Yes, it did add to our expense, but we didn’t need a whole new door (just the spring assembly).

The great thing was it could have happened the day after the repairman came, or a week or month later. Instead, that door broke just in time to get fixed the very next day.

Here’s the thing: When you experience a glass half empty circumstance, don’t just settle for that perspective. There is greater value in looking for the glass half full perspective in that circumstance. God will always provide something of greater value than what’s on the surface … if we will look for it.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: How have you turned a half empty circumstance into a half full one? Leave your comment below.