This last Cinco de Mayo, I got lost while driving in an unfamiliar town. Do you remember when Michael Scott followed his GPS into a lake? Yeah. Well, I’m kind of like that, too. When the official-sounding lady in the box declared “Turn right”, I turned right even when it defied common sense and took me into a parking lot of an industrial park.

So while I sat in the parking lot trying to figure out where I made a wrong turn, I saw another car in the parking lot, maybe a hundred feet away. The car had a sticker of a Mexican flag proudly displayed on their bumper. I watched while the driver removed a vacuum cleaner and bucket of cleaning supplies from the trunk of his car. A female passenger, his wife I imagined, carried a picnic basket and a blanket to a shaded, grassy area at the side of the building. Spilling out from both back doors, two young children emerged, one with a soccer ball and another with a book.

The man brought his cleaning supplies to the door of the building, and then he kicked the soccer ball back-and-forth with one of his children. All the while, the woman laid out the blanket across the grass, placed the picnic basket in the middle, and started arranging plates on the four corners of the blanket around the basket.

How cool is that? I thought to myself. This man found a way to spend quality time with his family even though he has to work on a holiday.

Engaging in life has less to do with your circumstances; it’s about how you see the world, and what you choose to do with it. It has to do with attitude.

Look at your circumstances today. How are you going to see things? Will you grouse about having to work on such a nice day, or can you be thankful that you had the strength to get out of bed today? Will you lament that your job is sucking your brain, or are you grateful that you have a job? Are you tempted to complain that your boss has the IQ of a carrot, or are you glad you’re getting experience about WHAT NOT TO DO so you can be a smarter boss someday?

Attitude: No es cosa de risa…it’s no laughing matter. But come to think of it, your attitude can help you laugh, or it can help you cry. What’s it going to be?