imageI was a really good math student. For those of you that follow my blog give me a second to explain myself. I was a very good math student until the seventh grade. That was the year that numbers became letters. When I was in elementary school I could do basic math without using a pen or paper most times. I don’t know where my special powers came from but my mom thought I was a prodigy. When I hit seventh grade any ideas my mom had of enrolling me at the Mensa institute abruptly stopped.

Now you might be asking yourself what happened between 6th and 7th grade? Well the same thing that happens to most of us when we have a problem we think is impossible, I started over thinking. I couldn’t wrap my mind around the fact that I was dealing with letters instead of numbers. So I would stare at X+6=14 and look for the booby traps. I would say to myself there’s no way X is 8. That’s too easy, there has to be another step I had to take. So I would morph a simple problem into that equation Matt Damon solved in the movie “Good Will Hunting”.

I was making the problem so complex I wasn’t seeing the solution. The solution was for me to turn my mind off. The inside voice that would tell me I could never do math would be louder than the voice yelling, “Its 8 dummy what’s wrong with you?” I believe that’s why most people inhabiting the earth haven’t figured out the equation called life. I would have called it a problem, but if you know the answer life is amazing. Let me explain.

We all are given this complex equation called life. For the first eighteen years of our existence our parents sit over our shoulder and help us correct mistakes, most times before they even happen. Then something happens. The equation gets a lot harder, and unlike before mom and dad aren’t there to help. It’s like they purposely act like they no longer know the answers. So you’re all alone trying to figure out something you feel is impossible.

What you learn when you have your own kids is, mom and dad still knew the answer but they needed you to figure it out for yourself. Life isn’t as hard as we tend to make it. The answer is always right in front of us. By in front of us I mean the answer lies within the person you see everyday in the mirror.

Every day we make a choice. We can live life positively or we can live it negatively. The power of choice is what makes being alive so awesome. You choose how you react to every situation that comes your way, both good and bad. Some of you are saying right now, “Cornell I got laid off from my job I didn’t choose that”. You’re right you didn’t but you do choose what happens next. Are you going to sit home and cry about it or dust yourself off and search for the next opportunity?

Life my friends is really that easy. It’s that easy because you determine how you feel each day. Life is 10% of what happens to you and 90% how you react to it. Stop making the problem harder than it is, the answer is right there.