The alarm.

A cup of coffee.

Ten minutes of silence before I whisk myself away into a shower with the hopes of getting myself put together for work before the troops stir. My energizer bunnies a.k.a my two bitty kids.

Maybe this was the morning I spilled coffee on the carpet because I wasn’t balancing everything just right on my walk down the stairs. Maybe this was the morning my eyes were all puffy and I could have used an extra two minutes of sleep…or maybe just maybe this was the one time in months I forgot to hit the button before I lay my head down on that sweet wonderful pillow and well, I just didn’t get up–not in time for work anyway.

In any case, I have to get it together somehow.

So I stand in front of the mirror. I take a hard look, sporting a gray towel on my head, a tooth brush in my mouth and I think: “Today is a good day.”

I say this until I believe this. Because no matter how I feel when I wake up, the extra minute I may need one day verses the other, the bunnies stirring early, shaking my simple routine right off track…

I remind myself what I learned at a conference on communicating with difficult people: your personal perspective can change everything.

So maybe it takes one or two and maybe up to 100 times I have to hear myself speak out—loud. But eventually, the edges of my mouth lift. I see the smile lines at the corner of my eyes. It’s there. Happiness, staring right back at me.

Then I get dressed. I wrestle my kids in their clothes. And I walk out that door and head off on my way—believing with every muscle and every thought that it IS a good day. Why? Because anything else may spiral myself down a direction I don’t want to take. If I go there, I may grab someone else or something else right with me.

 I can’t afford that. Not emotional, mentally or physically.

What I want is my dream and I have to act in ways that will help me reach that goal.