The following story is an entry to a contest found here and hosted by @karenmckersie.
The rules are simple and only require you to follow a simple writing prompt:
When I sat down to write a story for this contest, I wanted to come up with something fictional. Something along the lines of what my stories usually are. Pure fiction.
It was soon after that I realised I couldn't come up with anything. My mind was absolutely blank. And then it suddenlly hit me.
Positivity and fiction?
Why?
There is so much good happening all around us every single day. So many happy thoughts, so many happy moments, so many cheerful smiles. Why not share that reality instead? Why succumb to the world of fictional tales?
So instead of my usual fictional tales, today I give you the reality. As harsh or as beautiful as it is. As harsh or as beautiful as I see it. As harsh or as beautiful as I choose to see it.
After all, we see reality the way we wish to see it. And to back up this statement, I will describe my day to you and how I influenced it only with the power of my mind positivity.
I'm sick (nothing really serious, let's call it a slightly more severe cold; a runny nose, a slight headache and generally feeling like crap) so I didn't go to work today. Lucky me, because it allowed me to sleep in. I couldn't fall asleep last night. At all. I was up until around 2 am and imagine if I had to wake up at 5.40 am today. Probably would've just crashed back to bed regardless.
Anyways, I got up at around 10 am and made myself a cup of coffee. I was tempted by my bed when I came back to my room but decided to check Steemit again just in case something exciting came up. Sure enough, @braveheart29 had written the next part of the story we're working on together (called ”Slaughterhouse”) and so I decided to read it. I’m not going to go into too much detail of what the story is about, as you can read it yourself if you’re interested, but after I finished reading her part… I was shocked! She made it very, very difficult for me to continue and I had no idea what to do. Usually at that point I’d let it sit for a while and let my brain process the whole thing.
And that’s exactly what I first decided to do! I commented on the story and immediately after started browsing the internet for a movie I’d watch. I wasn’t feeling well after all and laying down was pretty much the only option.
But then I realized. I was only prolonging the inevitable. I had an infinite amount of time on my hands, and instead of facing the challenge, I backed off into my comfort zone and decided to watch a movie?
I decided I wasn’t going to watch that movie. No, sir!
I opened up a new Word document and wrote around ~1800 words worth of the story without even looking at the clock. And boy did it feel good! It felt absolutely amazing!
Would I have felt the same way had I not grabbed the bull by its horns and wrote this story? Would I have felt the same way if I felt sorry for myself and for how sick I felt? Would I have felt the same way if I told myself; ”Eeeeeh, you can do this later. It’s too much for right now.”
I’m pretty sure the answer to that question is a solid no.
I’ll skip the rest of what happened today and fast forward to the event I actually wanted to talk about. The event that sprouted this post. The event that truly shows the power of positivity.
I’m heading to work tomorrow and because it’s already freezing outside and I don’t own a garage, the car’s windows all freeze over overnight. I’m sure most of you know what I’m talking about. Now if you don’t cover your windshield with something like a cloth; Well good luck scraping the ice off in the morning!
So I decided to head downstairs to cover the windshield of my car so I wouldn’t have to scrape the ice off in the morning. I’ll still have to do the side windows, but it’s still much less work with the biggest window out of the question.
I head downstairs and it’s already freezing. My phone displayed – 4 °C. So pretty damn cold.
I unlocked the car and tried opening the passenger door (because that’s where the cloth to cover the windshield was stashed), but it didn’t budge. The door was frozen! I didn’t want to pull on it too hard so I wouldn’t tear off the handle, so I tried the back door.
Same story. The door didn’t move! It was completely frozen over!
I walked around the car and tried the driver’s door and somehow managed to open them. Hooray for me, right?
Wrong.
Because I tried opening the other two doors, the car thought the two doors were open and was giving me the red ”Open doors” flashing light. This forced me to open the doors and close them again.
I leaned onto the doors from the inside until the ice gave in and the doors opened. First the front passenger door, then I climbed in the back of the car and opened the back door.
The problem arose when I tried closing the doors. The front passenger door closed fine.
But the back door didn’t.
It just magically reopened when I closed it.
I got out to assess the situation and there was ice all over the place.
I took out the ice scraper and went to work, removing all ice I could find around the trims of the door.
The door still didn’t close.
At this point I needed to take a break and stick my hands in my pockets to warm them up.
I’m sure that by now you’re wondering;
”But @svashta, what’s any of this got to do with positivity?”
And I’ll get to that in a just a second.
You see, those 5 minutes, or however long it took to heat up my hands gave me time to think.
It gave me time to either get fully frustrated by the matter, or relax and clear my thoughts.
It gave me the chance to either curse the car, curse my runny nose and curse the universe; or put a smile on my face and think about the solution.
The end-goal was the same in both situations, right?
Get the door fixed.
Now I could fix those doors either by feeling mad and frustrated, or with a smile on my face while I face the challenge. And I knew I would fix them regardless. I couldn’t just leave the doors open overnight. Nor could I drive to work with open doors. No, whether mad or happy, I had to get that door fixed.
In the five minutes that I had; I picked the smile.
I owned the challenge I was presented and I did it with a smile on my face, feeling the same pride and accomplishment I did when I finished that story for @braveheart29.
At this point I’ll ask you;
Had I chosen being mad and frustrated; how would the outcome be different?
The door would be fixed still, wouldn’t it be?
But the smile on my face would not have been there.
That is exactly what I was trying to tell you with this “story”.
Whatever happens in life; you always have at least 2 options. You can always react in at least 2 ways. Happy. Or sad.
Life is going to happen regardless of your choice.
That thing you need to do? You’ll do it regardless.
That deadline you have to meet? You’ll meet it regardless.
Something went wrong? It's already gone wrong regardless.
What you can do in life is choose how you view things. How you react to things that have already happened, are happening, and are yet to happen.
You hold the power to either make your day happy... Or sad.
You, and only you, hold the power of choice.
You, and only you, hold the power of positivity.
feel free to leave a comment bellow and open a discussion.
in the comments below leave me a clue,
an idea for a story you'd love to read,
a journey to the unknown my keyboard will lead.
20
- #21 - The red star
- #22 - A terminally ill child wishes to meet a villain
- #23 - School trip
- #24 - Rebellious talking food
- #25 - Long-distance Relationship
Next writing prompt to be fulfilled:
Leave your idea in the comments below and have it turned into a story!