I walked into Office Depot to print off my family’s Christmas cards. I had never been responsible for this task before, so I was nervous. It’s an important task. Hundreds of family friends receive this card — friends that only know what you look like because of these cards.
Anyway, I walked up to the printing counter and began to tell the saleswoman what I needed. To put it lightly, she didn’t take well to me not knowing what labels were correct for Office Depot printers. I guess I’d say she had a pretty bad attitude. I eventually got the cards and labels printed and left, but her attitude influenced me.
On my drive home, I had a nice long train of thought. It was all about the effect each individual person has on hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people on this Earth and how a positive attitude is always a must.
I look at life as a big picture. That’s probably because I love taking pictures and being in them. I hang them on my walls in my room and I put them in albums so I can look through my past whenever I please. The cool thing about pictures is that there’s always more than one person in them. (Well, in my case. I don’t print off pictures of me by myself.) Pictures are filled with people you love, places you cherish and memories you’ll never forget. The people in these pictures are friends and family who I have had an influence on at one time or another. If I could guess, I wouldn’t have many people in my pictures if I had a bad attitude.
Life is one big picture with lots of people in it. A picture filled with people that you look up to and people that look up to you. A good attitude reflects Christ and will leave a lasting impression on the people that you know for five minutes and the people you know for a lifetime. A good attitude improves your confidence, self-esteem and quality of life. A bad attitude influences others as well. Sometimes a bad attitude can even leave a lasting impression. However, a bad attitude is worthless. So why spend your time influencing others for the worse when it can be for the better?
The saleswoman at Office Depot had no idea her bad attitude would influence me the way it did. Instead of making me have a bad day, it made me work harder to make sure every day is a great day, one worth living.
Having a good attitude creates a life full of love, laughter and happiness for you and everyone around you. So make today a great day. You’ll be happy you did. And so will the customers at Office Depot.