“We see the world
not as it is,
but as we are.” 
Stephen R. Covey

Optimists seem to recognize the good in the world more often than the bad. Pessimists seem to notice the bad in the world more often than the good. The quote above, by Stephen R. Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, rings true for me.

For those who develop and maintain a mindset of gratitude, those who are able to view the world, and those around them, through the lens of gratitude, life can be a gratifying experience. These are the “cup half-full” folks who always seem to find a way to identify the opportunity in any situation.

Barry Neil Kaufman, author of Happiness is a Choice, agrees with Covey. He wrote, “The way we choose to see the world creates the world we see.”

How do you see the world? What do you do, or what can you do, to see the world in a more positive light?

In his insightful book, 20 Gifts of Life, local author Hal Urban wrote, “What we do with our lives, whether good or bad, will eventually come back to us.” He points out that this is considered by many to be a natural law of the universe. Some refer to it as Karma. Urban continues, “The more good we do, the more it comes back to us. If we’re consistently kind, honest, and hard-working, we’ll eventually reap the rewards… If we’re consistently mean, dishonest, and lazy, we’ll eventually suffer the consequences.”

Most of us, I would think, can cite numerous examples of this not being accurate. Rabbi Harold Kushner even published a book about this — When Bad Things Happen to Good People. Yes, it’s true. Bad things do occasionally happen to good people. Life isn’t always fair. Generally speaking, however, my own experience of life validates Dr. Urban’s claim that, as the Bible tells us, “we reap what we sow.”

Developmental psychologist, Thomas Lickona, is the author of How to Raise Kind Kids, Character Matters, and six other titles. Hal Urban shared this quote by Dr. Lickona in 20 Gifts of Life: “We may not always reap a good harvest in the short run from the good that we sow, but ultimately, later in this life or in the next life, we will indeed reap what we have sown.”  

It seems that the ball is in our court. Do we want our experience of the world to be good? If so, we must be good, we must do good, and we must strive to see the world around us through the lens of gratitude. It really is that simple.