I'm SUPER excited!!

Some of you may or may not know, but our family took a trip to Kentucky this past week for my sister-in-law's wedding.  Kentucky is a beautiful state, and the wedding reflected the beauty around us.  Congratulations to Darcy and Jeremy!  One of the neat things on the trip was sitting by my youngest son Alex.  This was his first airplane ride, and man was he pumped!  All I heard on that first flight was, "I'm super excited dad...I'm super excited!  This is super fun...this is super fun!"  His eyes were wide opened and he loved looking out the window and watching the small cars and semis below us.  I've never seen a kid maintain that level of excitement before.  He was truly having the time of his life, and his excitement was infectious.  Even I enjoyed the plan ride even though I could have used about 12 inches more space in between my seat and the seat in front of me.  One couldn't help but have a good time
Attitude has huge influence on the way we experience life.  I know I'm not revealing anything new, but I was reminded of that fact on my flight with Alex.  I never like plane rides (they aren't designed for tall people), and I was certainly wondering how a flight would be with a squirmy 3 year old by me.  I had visions of cramped quarters, irate passengers because they didn't appreciate the massage his little feet could give them, and an hour of are we there yet.  I had decided before I even got there I was going to have a bad flight.  If Alex hadn't been so good and so excited my attitude would have made it a bad flight and experience for both of us. 
How many times have we made a situation worse because our attitude was terrible?  I'm afraid to count honestly.  I'm really good at letting my preconceived notions about a situation dictate how I go into it.  If I think it's going to be a bad experience before I even get there then you know what....more times then not I have a bad experience.  When I look back at those experiences I can see that if I would have went with an open mind then the experience wouldn't have been so bad at all.  Attitude shapes us all the time, and we can control our attitude. 
Thinking a little deeper I believe our attitude changes others around us too.  Think of a time when you were in a meeting and someone walked in with a sour attitude.  What happened to the tenor of that meeting?  It generally follows the grumpy person right?  Conversely, what happened when someone with some real excitement and enthusiasm came into a meeting?  The energy picked up and most likely it's was successful meeting, or at least as successful as meetings can be.  A 3 year old had a huge influence on my experience on the airplane, and I'd even go as far to say he influenced how I experienced the rest of the trip.  His unbridled enthusiasm got the trip started off on the right foot and it was great from there.
I challenge you, and I challenge myself, to take a look at my attitude before I go into something.  I certainly don't want to be the person who brings the whole room down.  I'd rather be the person who lifts the spirits of the room.  I know that I can't always be sunshine and rainbows, but at the very least I can keep the negativity and preconceived notions at bay so I can at least start the experience with an open mind.  Do you think you could try that too?