Friday, June 20, 2014

Spilled Milk: a lesson on Murphy's Law

Hiya friends!

Want to know something awesome?!

I locked my phone and my keys in my car...

What? That's not awesome you say?

I guess your right.

So if any of you lovely people try to text or call me and I don't respond don't be offended. I promise I don't hate you and I'm not ignoring you.

This last week I was able to go hang out with my family on the Oregon Coast. It was buckets of fun and thanks to Murphy's Law none of my pictures from my fancy pants camera will upload. And also thanks to Murphy's Law, my phone with the rest of my pictures is locked in the car.

It's kind of a Murphy's Law day.

Murphy's Law states that 
"Everything that can go wrong will go wrong." 
(Look teacher! I do pay attention in school!)

So I guess you'll have to survive with only the pictures that I've already uploaded to Instagram.


I was on this rode, therefor, there were more Whits on this Whitmore Road.
We found a tiny door at Burger King. #shortpeopleequality

Dad is livin' so big he hit his head on the midget door. Way to live big dad. We're proud of you. #LiveBig2014

Finally found a door my size!

lots of fast food
Portland Temple!
Beach Sistas
Required handstand picture.
Life is best when it looks like this.


So in the spirit of "everything that can go wrong will" lets talk about Murphy's Law. Murphy's Law means that all the bad things that can possibly happen to you will. HowStuffWorks.com states that "it may just be right. This isn't because of some mysterious power the law possesses. In reality, it's us who give Murphy's Law relevance. When life goes well, little is made of it. After all, we expect that things should work out in our favor. But when things go badly, we look for reasons."

What? It's my fault everything seems to have gone wrong this morning? No, but its my fault if I decide to dwell on it.

As we go through life we focus on all the bad things. The keys locked in car, the photos that won't upload, the frustrations with work, the million responsibilities we are trying to juggle, all the people texting you wanting your time that you don't have, the car accidents, the failed attempts, the tight money, the medical problems, the spilled milk.

These things happen to everybody.

But while we are focusing on the spilled milk we sometimes forget the milk that's still in the glass.

Murphy's Law is only relevant if we let it be.

Look down at your hands for a second and think about all the wonderful things they have done since you woke up this morning. They have probably done at least a few of these; made you food, brushed your teeth, combed your hair, drove your car, shook hands with someone, gave someone a highfive, picked something up, set something down, typed something awesome, scrolled through the internet, hit like on some social media site, played a musical instrument, pushed play on a movie, done pushups, done pullups, honked your horn, cleaned your house, opened a door, clicked on my blog, or maybe turned on some music.

Now, That's only a few seconds of thinking about the awesome things your hands can do. And this list is limited to one body part. Now think of all the awesome things in your feet, your mouth, and your brain. Think of all the things outside your body that are awesome. The list would never end. These things your hands did this morning are all remarkable amazing features that you have been blessed with the ability to do. But when you did any of these this morning did you think "Oh, it's so awesome that I can do that?"

Probably not.

As humans we expect only good things to happen to us, and we therefor, only notice when bad things happen. While what we should be doing is focusing on all the good things.

Hiliary Weeks, an astounding LDS singer and speaker, once talked and sang at a concert I went to. She talked about an experiment she conducted that resulted in the creation of her site billionclicks.org.

She had heard that on average the human things around 300 negative thoughts a day. She wanted to know if this was true so she decided to test it. She got one of these clickers and clicked it every time she thought a negative thought through the day.

Pretty soon she noticed that she was focusing on, and looking for all the bad things. She started to become depressed and was having a hard time focusing on the good things in life.

This is exactly what Murphy's Law is. Focusing on bad things until they are the only thing you can see.

She wondered if this same experiment would work the other way. If focusing on bad made her sad, would focusing on good make her happy?

She also tested this and it worked! By focusing on only good thoughts she soon had a new attitude about life. Things suddenly became better and all she did was change her thoughts.

When I heard this I decided I wanted to try it myself. I bout a clicker and I tested this experiment and am proud to say that it works! Now, this morning I wasn't thinking about this and was trying to figure out why everything was going wrong. When I realized that in reality, everything was going right. As soon as I changed my outlook on my day things got a whole lot better.

Since Murphy's law makes us sad, let's make up a new law that will make us happy. Let's call it Happy's Law.

There are so many good things in our lives right in front of our noses. We just have to open our eyes to see them.

So here's to the person who locked her keys in the car. Don't focus on the spilled milk, but the milk that's still in the glass.






feel my sunlight




p.s.  Thanks to too much spam comments I had to change my settings so that I have to approve comments that are posted. So if your comment doesn't show up right away don't fret! It will! Keep the comments coming! I love them!

p.s.s.I only have a year left of High School. I only have a year left of tumbling, and only a year left until I go on a mission. That's a crazy thought!












2 comments:

  1. Oh my goodness, I needed to read this just now. My best friend (Katie) and I had plans to hang out today. I worked till 4:30, but we were FOR SURE gonna do something once I got home. But then her family did family stuff all day, and after dinner, and they finally finished just after 9. Kinda late to hang out, but my mom gave permission. Her mom didn't. "Frustrated" seems an inadequate description.

    This is the best friend I rarely get to see, and we're going to different colleges this fall. She's said multiple times that we'll hang out tons this summer, but it just isn't working out. Granted, we've got time, but only about two months.

    Thank you for reminding me that sometimes life *does* work out the way we wanted it to, but those times don't make as big of an impression on us as the "Murphy's Law" days do. We need to make more of an effort to remember those days when things do go our way.

    <3 Marie-Rose

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    Replies
    1. That's no fun at all! I know how you feel. My best friend just graduated and I still have 1 more year of HS, and I haven't seen her since before school got out. (we already went to different High Schools). It is defiantly frustrating. But things will workout. :)

      -Whit

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