This last Winter in Minnesota on a business trip, I rode in two taxicabs.

Traveling from the airport to the hotel, I asked the first cab driver, “So how do you like driving a taxi and working for yourself?”

“I hate it,” he said with scorn. “I don’t get paid unless I’m out here busting my butt. The hours are unpredictable and irregular. And I meet a bunch of crazy people.”

A few days later as I traveled from the hotel back to the airport, I asked the same question of the second driver.

“It’s great!” he gushed. “I can make as much money as I want, as long as I’m willing to work. The hours are flexible. And I meet interesting people like you!”

Who do you think got the bigger tip?

Reach For Those Glasses

Every morning, we get to choose what colored glasses we will view the world through. If we pick up rose-colored glasses, everything we see is going to take on a more pleasant hue; however, if we pick up dirt-colored glasses, each vision that fills our sight will seem dark, depressing, and dismal.

So let me tell you a few things that your grandma probably told you, but you dismissed because grandma didn’t quote research that would some day back up her opinions with these findings:

1. Regarding happiness, circumstances take a back-seat to our choices.

No matter what’s going on in your life, you will be precisely as happy as you make up your mind to be.

2. Glasses magically change your view of the world.

Your job, significant other, coworkers, neighbors, and customers will either be a source of great joy for you or a source of great discontent. You get to choose the former or the latter; and

3. Some viruses are best avoided.

Negative attitudes are 5X more contagious than positive ones. Do you know you can stop from getting sucked up into the vortex of someone else’s misery? Just stay away from people who generate a negative vortex. It works. As an added happiness bonus, you can seek the company of those people who bring your joy!

So when someone asks, “How’s it going today?” you can say “It’s Heaven!” or “It’s Hell!”

And you know what? You’ll be right.