Half-Full or Half-Empty?

Is the cup half-full or half-empty? 

The optimist sees the cup as half-full, the pessimist sees it as half-empty. 

It’s a question of attitudes – do you see the good or the bad in situations?  

Though this might be a long-lived debate, when looking at the glass, I don’t see it as a question. 

I see it only as reality. What are we actually seeing? What is there, and what is not?  What is inside my control and what is outside of it? 

From this point-of-view, I only see one answer.

The cup is half-full. 

Why? 

Because if you are focusing on the cup being half-empty. You are focusing on something that is not there. You are focusing on the ‘empty.’ 

The nothingness. 

The space that is outside of your control. 

We can only look at things that are within our control. The water and the glass. We can’t focus on the emptiness around the glass or above the glass. We can’t control the person that might drink the water, the earthquake that shatters the glass, or the shortage of water that increases the price of it. 

This is what anxiety is: focusing on events that are ‘not there,’ focusing on things that haven’t happened yet, focusing on things that are outside of our control.

Author and philosopher, Khalil Gibran, said:

“Our anxiety does not come from thinking about the future, but from wanting to control it.”

Whether your attitude leans towards optimism or pessimism. You need to be a realist. Focus on what you can control and accept what you cannot. 

Within Jiu Jitsu, focus on the controlables, like how often you are showing up to train, how much you are focusing in class, what you are doing outside of class to improve, or what you are doing to allow your body to recover. 

Don’t focus on things outside of your control like how you got submitted by a lower belt, how your training partner is getting better than you, or how your injury is affecting your performance. 

Within life, focus on how much money you are saving each week, not how the stock market will react to a tweet.  Focus on the quality time spent with your children, not how much time your neighbors are spending with theirs. Focus on the type of person you want to become, not what type of person others want you to become.

Your life is a balancing act. 

Control what you can and accept what you cannot.

Own the process,

Tim 
Author of Mastery Monday
Founder & Student