It has been said that ten percent of life is what happens to us and ninety percent is how we respond to what happens.  Whether these figures are accurate is unknown, but what we do know is that many people have a propensity to turn bad situations into positive results while many others have a propensity to turn positive situations into negative outcomes.

While people may not have the choice of what happens to them, they should be able to learn how to control their responses with the aim of making things better for themselves.  Unexpected obstacles may stall our plans, so in order to deal with them, we have to make adjustments.  It does no good to brood over a problem.  Instead it is best to stay positive and think of the best solution from that point on.

An example of this is when a player feels he deserves to be a starter but the coach feels differently.  The player can either accept the situation he is assigned and make the best of it and keep a positive attitude or sulk and complain.  The best solution is to adjust to the role he is assigned, make the best of it, be patient and then work very hard to show the coach that he deserves a bigger role. He needs to gain the confidence of the coach for this to happen. 

He should motivate himself by looking at the situation as a challenge.  Some of the best rewards are the ones we have to work hard for, not the ones that come easily or are given to us.  In this process one will gain confidence that he is very capable of solving other problems in the future.

Positive people develop more realistic expectations and are better able to adjust their responses when things do not go as expected in the future.  They will also have a stronger belief that good things will happen  then.