Tigger, the energetic Winnie the Pooh character who is always bouncing around, tends to view life with childlike wonder and boundless enthusiasm. Eeyore, on the other hand, mopes around depressed and sad, always seeing the glass of life as half empty. I'll admit that some days I'm a Tigger and others I'm an Eeyore. It was an Eeyore kind of day that inspired this post.

Perhaps you've heard of the movie "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day." Well, this is the story of "Diane and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day."

It's not that anything had gone particularly wrong on this beautiful summer Saturday; it just didn't seem like anything was going particularly right. I was worried about my newspaper colleagues who had just lost their jobs in a layoff. I was also suffering the effects of post-graduation letdown. Having spent the previous year focused on homework, writing a research paper and making it to graduation, I was feeling out of sorts and unsure of where to put my energy.

After surveying my empty flower pots and baskets, I decided to direct my energy toward my neglected gardening efforts in hopes of bringing some life and color to my gloomy existence. Gardening is one of my loves in life, and my gardening season typically begins around April 15 — easily remembered because it's Tax Day, but it also happens to be the time by which Middle Tennessee has usually experienced its final frost of the season. It was now mid-June. So, I made a list and headed out to my neighborhood Home Depot.

While I left home with good intentions, determined to get something done and not let the day go to waste, by the time I pulled my car (laden with ferns, flowers and potting soil) into my neighborhood, I just wasn't feeling it. If you recall the Staples back-to-school commercial — the one where the parents are happily gliding through the store with a shopping cart, followed by their two children who look like they're on a death march — that's pretty much how I felt. And that's when I saw it. A scarlet-red cardinal suddenly lit on a bush on my neighbor's lawn as I was driving past. The brilliant color of his red feathers broke through the barrier and crashed my pity party. He was beautiful.

There's an old cliche that states "You are what you eat." At that moment, I was reminded that "We are what we THINK." When we focus on the bad, we tend to see more bad in the world. When we focus on what's good, the more of it we find. The beauty of this small but magnificent creature brought me back to reality and impressed upon me that even when we are surrounded by ugliness, there is still beauty in the world — if only we will take the time to notice it. During a recent Harry Potter movie marathon (in anticipation of viewing the epic film that ends the series), I took note of a comment by Albus Dumbledore's character.

"Happiness can be found in the darkest of places, if only one remembers to turn on the light."

I believe there truly is power in positive thinking. Just as good acts beget good acts in return, good thoughts beget more good thoughts. The concept goes back to the commonsense notion that if you do something long enough or often enough, it becomes a habit. It's the same principal that serves as the basis for drug and alcohol rehab treatment. There was even a movie about it: 28 Days. While the number varies, there's a common belief that if you perform the exercise for 21 to 28 days, that action will become a habit.

Does developing a positive attitude mean that bad days will be vanquished? Of course not. But I believe that it will result in fewer of them. Don't get me wrong. There are situations where it's almost impossible to find anything positive. Cancer is bad. Losing a loved one to a long-term illness is painful. Facing serious financial hardship is difficult. But there are people who face these hardships and do so with an inspiring attitude that makes the rest of us look like sissies. Take college professor Randy Pausch for example. In 2006 Pausch was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer; about a year later, he was told he had three to six months to live. Just after doctors delivered that dire prognosis, Pausch delivered a lecture at Carnegie Mellon University. In what is now famously known as "The Last Lecture: Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams," Pausch uses humor and a positive attitude to inspire others. Following is one of the insights he shared in the lecture.

"We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand."

It's a sentiment that's been uttered by many writers, poets and speakers throughout the ages. Put another way: It's not what happens to us in life but how we react to it that determines our destiny. Pausch died of complications from pancreatic cancer on July 25, 2008. In re-reading the text of his last lecture, I can't help feeling that if Randy Pausch could find the good in a bad situation, then maybe, just maybe, there's hope for the rest of us.

How do you maintain a positive attitude? Do you have your own successful method of fighting negativity? Whether you have a tip to share or a comment on your own struggle, your thoughts are welcome. While you are required to give a name in order to leave a comment, feel free to leave your first name only or moniker of choice. To leave a response, click Comment(s) and enter information in the Leave A Reply form.

Extreme Danger! warns the sign that stands sentinel and impedes our progress to the path beyond. Yet we watch as undeterred hikers carefully press on to the unmarked trail that runs along the Cliffs of Moher. Fearful of joining this band of rogues, my husband and I remain behind, content with the "standard" view, which is, in its own right, pretty amazing.

But when we returned to the cliffs on a later visit, we had a new plan.

For our second trip to Ireland in 2008, my husband and I did the research and opted to see the cliffs by way of a seldom-publicized hike that stretches from the Cliffs of Moher visitors center to a local landmark known as Hag's Head. Unlike our first visit, which started at the commercial hub of the official visitors center, this time our journey begins at the peaceful end of an unmarked country road. It is a glorious day at Hag's Head, sunny and mild with a gentle breeze.

As gulls fly overhead, we breathe in the sea air and set out on the gravel trail that leads to a well-worn path through the grass. To our right, the trail offers views of farmland and fences with cows grazing nearby. On our left is the cliff's edge -- a safe distance away -- with the waves of the Atlantic crashing on the rocks 700 feet below. The magnificent views of the sea and cliffs change with every step. There's no crowd here, but we do encounter other thrill-seekers, bound in both directions, who have elected to travel the same "forbidden" path.

Our two-hour amble in the countryside allows us to fully experience the cliffs, far beyond the token photograph that most visitors take at the official viewing area. But our walk comes to a close as we near the visitors center and approach the wall that signals the end of our "dangerous" venture. We give a knowing smile to those just embarking on the journey. We know the rewards that await them. And for being willing to assume the risk, they will experience something that most visitors here do not. Reluctantly, we climb over the rock wall. As we turn, we see the familiar sign: Extreme Danger! Unstable Cliffedge.

I'm glad I took a chance that day and chose to escape the comfort of my safety net. The experience reminds me that we become too secure in the familiarity of what we know and that sometimes we need to take a chance and get off the beaten path. A slight stretch outside of your comfort zone can bring moments that will mark your life and cause you to believe that more is possible! Long-forgotten dreams are reawakened, and you find yourself wondering why you've wasted so much time ... why you haven't made an effort to reach for the heights to which you once aspired.

Well-known wordsmith Henry David Thoreau penned these words in Walden:

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what I had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived."

The choices we make in life come with consequences, and sometimes there is risk involved. But you can't always play it safe. If you never pen the novel you long to write, never visit the place you most want to see, never endeavor to go after the job that you really want, you can trust that your life will indeed be safe … and familiar … and, most likely, unremarkable.

In another of his observations on life, Thoreau wrote:

"The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them."

Sitting here, my finger poised to hit the publish button, is a bit like standing on the edge of a cliff. As I cast my gaze out on a sea of prospective readers, I wonder: Will anyone take the time to read this? Will anyone find it meaningful? Will it just be wasted words? I don't know the answers to those questions, but I'm willing to take the chance. No risk, no reward.

So, in pursuit of a more remarkable life, I leap...


Photo by Michael D. Hughes

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