How do you face each day?  Are you a glass half-empty or glass half-full person? If something unusual of less than ideal happens during the day, how do you react?

I was always amazed at pictures of my father.  I don't believe that I ever saw him in a picture where he wasn't smiling.  My dad just faced every day with a positive attitude.  That does not mean that everything he faced was positive.  It just meant that he was unlikely to let it get him down, or prevent him from succeeding.  I also don't believe that I ever saw my father blame anyone for misfortune.  He just shrugged his shoulders and went on with life.

"Things happen!"  This sentiment is often phrased more colloquially and is stated with much emphasis.  However, the unknown unknown has come into your life or work, you must work around it.  You must display a positive attitude toward others.  You must assume that there is a way to succeed.  In other words, like James T. Kirk, you can never believe in the "no win" situation.

In Verse 72*, Lao Tzu expresses the following sentiment which can be interpreted as always making sure that you adjust your attitude toward the positive, larger picture.

"Don't limit the view of yourself
Don't despise the conditions of your birth
Don't resist the natural course of the rest of your life
     In this way you will never weary of this world

The Sage knows himself, but not as himself
     he loves himself, but not as himself
     he honors himself, but not as himself
Thus, he discards the view of his own self
     and chooses the view of the universe"

*Tao Te Ching, The Definitive Edition, Lao Tzu with Translation and Commentary by Jonathan Star, Jeremy P Tarcher/Penguin, 2001, page 85