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Today was one of those days when I got to test my powers of positive thinking and whether I would look at the glass being half empty rather than being half full.

My three year-old twin woke the family up in the wee hours of the morning with a horrendous sounding cough. I rushed to him in a panic, worried that he could not breathe properly. Luckily,he could breathe and fell back asleep but I knew that my day would now consist of one unexpected visit to the pediatrician’s office. This was my first mental note for the day.

Right at my shop’s opening hour, I received a call from one of our employees. It seems that she found herself having great anxiety coming to work. She felt that the job was not what she thought it would be .

Of course, this type of call is one that no employer wants to receive. My heart sank because I felt for her. The first thing that I did was acknowledge that she was feeling so badly. Anxiety is painful and can be very difficult to express to others because the potential for a lack of compassion is very high. Yes, it is a drag having to find a new employee. But I want someone who want to be there.

I was satisfied that John and I had been very clear beforehand about what duties our job entailed. We had communicated in good faith and our conscience was clear that we had not created any unrealistic expectations for our employees. In fact, I thanked the employee for her honesty. She is a great person, but not having had any previous retail experience she realized that it was not such a great fit for her.

My mother told me there’d be days like this. “The Secret” book has helped remind me of the tenets of positive thinking. I can’t control what other people do, but I can control how I react to them.