The one lesson that I have learned from life and which I would like to pass on to others is that positive thinking can make life far more livable and happier than an attitude wherein you blame yourself for all the bad that is happening around you. I, for one, started off as a person who would not be happy most times. I would always find things to feel bad about. For 5 good things in my life, I'd find 10 bad things to focus on and ruminate on.

I'd always think about the bad things that were happening to me and not focus enough on the good things in my life. That attitude resulted in a lot of tears and sadness for me, even though my life was way better than the millions of unfortunate people whose troubles and daily struggles are so much more greater compared to my minuscule complaints of life. My perspective was flawed and I lived that way for a long time.

The greatest thing that ever happened to me was when I realized my flawed sense of perspective and viewed things differently. That happened when I was around 22. I started to view things from a positive perspective. Instead of focusing on the bad component of a given situation, I tried focusing on the good parts of it. When before, I would raise my expectations of things and feel intensely disappointed and depressed when there were left unfulfilled; now, I would temper my expectations of life and would consciously downplay those expectations. Consequently, when things did not happen the way I wanted and hoped, I would come to terms with it far easier - as I had not raised my expectations much on them coming to fruition.

Positive thinking made me celebrate my successes more and pretty much ignore my failures and not allow it to spoil my day or bog me down. Today, I live life one day at a time. I don't worry about the future as much and I feel much more content with life now than I used to.