"The Whole World Stinks!"
While Grandpa is taking a nap on the couch, his seven-year-old grandson gets some Limburger cheese from the refrigerator and smears it on Grandpa’s mustache.
When grandpa wakes up, he says, "This room stinks!" He goes to another room and says, "This room stinks." After walking throughout the house, he says, "The whole house stinks!"
Grandpa goes outside and takes a deep breath and says, "The whole world stinks!"
Your attitude about life does the same thing.
Examples
- Your marriage is not going well. You go to a movie and notice how nobody smiles. Couples seem to be bored with each other. The movie’s happy ending seems phony.
- Someone’s nasty comment at work makes your head feel like exploding with anger. While driving home, everyone seems aggressive and rude. You drive like a dangerous, insane maniac. You think about gun ownership.
- You watch the news on television for a few hours and feel uneasy. You go outside and look at airplanes as possible threats. You suspect your neighbor might be a bad guy. You jump out of your skin when a kid yells, "Bang!"
- Your business just made a healthy profit this month. You celebrate at a restaurant where the food tastes great and the waitress is cheerful. When you go outside, the sunset looks glorious. Everyone seems to be smiling.
Why Life Changes
In an article "Is it Possible to Be Happy?" L. Ron Hubbard writes:
"You remember when you were maybe five years old, and you went out in the morning and you looked at the day, and it was a very, very beautiful day, and you looked at the flowers and they were very beautiful flowers.
"Twenty-five years later you get up in the morning, you take a look at the flowers—they are wilted. The day isn’t a happy day.
"Well, what has changed? You know they are the same flowers, it’s the same world, something must have changed.
"Probably it was you."
"Actually, a little child derives all of his pleasure in life from the grace he puts upon life. He waves a magic hand and brings all manner of interesting things into being out in the society. Here is this big, strong brute of a man riding his iron steed, up and down, and boy, he'd like to be a cop. Yes sir! He would sure like to be a cop; and twenty-five years later he looks at that cop riding up and down and checks his speedometer and says, 'Doggone these cops!'
"Well, what is changed here? Has the cop changed? No. Just the attitude toward him. One's attitude toward life makes every possible difference in one's living. You know you don't have to study a thousand ancient books to discover that fact. But sometimes it needs to be pointed out again that life doesn't change so much as you."
"The day when you stop building your own environment, when you stop building your own surroundings, when you stop waving a magic hand and gracing everything around you with magic and beauty, things cease to be magical, things cease to be beautiful."
Add Some Magic to Your Life
Clear out the smell of Limburger cheese and make your life more enjoyable with this exercise.
- Look around you. Notice your immediate surroundings in present time. Focus on where you are.
- Think of a way you can make your environment a little more comfortable. Write it down.
- Think of a way you can make your environment a little more cheerful. Write it down.
- Think of a way you can make your environment a little more beautiful. Write it down.
- Do these three things.
- Repeat as needed until your attitude and the world around you improves.
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