I was 16 years old, I was a freshman at Louisiana State University (LSU), and I had just purchased my first car for $2,200 (it was a red 1988 Ford Tempo).  It was beautiful; at least it was to me.

After being in school for a few weeks, I decided to take a drive back to my parent’s home for Labor Day weekend.

As I was driving home, I got into a terrible altercation with an “ant,” yes, I did say an “ant,” he bit me on my hand while I was driving, causing me to demolish my 1988 Ford Tempo.

This was a very sad day for me .

Almost a year later, I purchased another car; it was a teal 1989 Honda Accord LXi.  This car cost me $4,000, I had worked full-time for the remainder of my freshman year (while maintaining a 4.0 grade point average  ) in order to purchase this car and afford my very pricey insurance…

I was proud, I had now totally recouped from the embarrassment of demolishing my other car just one year earlier…I was “the man.”

One weekend shortly thereafter, I decided to drive from school to my parent’s home.  I had just left LSU’s campus, and I was headed to interstate I-10, then the unthinkable happened.  I made a left turn at a stop-light where I didn’t have the right-of-way; to make a long story short,… I demolished yet another car.

Did I mention that I didn’t have full-coverage insurance?  Yeah.  All of my hard-work and savings was seemingly for nothing.  The embarrassment seemed overwhelming; I knew that my parents would be very angry.  My dreams of driving anytime in the near future were crushed, and my car was gone.  I remember thinking, “this is a bad day!” …

…And then I had another thought, I thought about something I heard one of my teachers say when I was in middle-school.  The teacher said, “I never have bad days, I have opportunities to have bad days, but I don’t accept those opportunities.”

In that very distressing moment, when my world seemed to be crumbling all around me, I decided that I could change my attitude; I said, “I’m going to have a good day!”  The epiphany hit me like a ton of bricks…“bad days are a choice”…I had been previously choosing something that I did not want.  If I could choose to have a bad day, then I could choose to have a good day; despite what was going on.  I remember saying, “My stability is not based on the instability around me.”

I knew that if I could make the choice to be content in that moment, having faith that everything would work out, then I could be like my teacher and rise above the concept of a bad day.  And that’s exactly what I did. I decided on that day that I would never have another bad day again; and guess what, I’ve never had one since.

I’ve had plenty of opportunities, but I haven’t taken any of those opportunities.  I’ve committed to focus on the positive, and to have faith in a brighter future, no matter what’s going on.

And you know what, everything worked out just fine with the accident…I was driving again very shortly thereafter…and are you ready for the really good news,…I’ve never had an accident since… .

…You can do the same thing, no matter what’s going on in your life, commit to only have good days; the choice is yours!

[Note: No one was injured at any point during these accidents.]

Thank you for reading mrselfdevelopment.com where every article expands your mind, increases your faith, and changes your life.

If you enjoyed reading this article please subscribe to my RSS Feed .