I think of myself as a positive person. One of my personality traits is being analytical and skeptic of anything new that happens to pass my way. Being a positive person, I generally look for the good things rather than bad and say “I can” verses “I can’t.” Sometimes this gets me into trouble by over thinking and not seeing all the hidden dangers.

For me, trouble occurs when I over think or speculate what could happen. For instance, we all know that traffic lights work to make traffic move through intersections safely and smoothly. When the light is red we stop, green we go and yellow, be prepared to stop. Being positive, because of the traffic light we know that the intersection is basically safe. If we don’t look at the opposing side, we don’t see the potential for danger, that someone else may not stop for the red or they step on the gas to get through the yellow that I am sure most of us have done probably more times than we ought. This may be a bad analogy but I think you can see my point. If we only look at something one way, or just the positive side we don’t always see the potential of danger that exists.

Being analytical and a skeptic makes me slow to accept new ideas and many times frustrates other people around me who just jump in and let the chips fall where they may. Like in my previous post “over the mountain, or through it” I usually get to the same destination but it just take me longer to get there. By being positive, analytical and skeptic may seem counterintuitive but it allows me most of the time to see all sides of a situation and make the best choice possible. But saying that, when I look into the negative side, some times I over analyze and drag my feet even harder and expecting a worse outcome than what really may happen.

After having digestion problems these past five to six months and still waiting the final diagnosis, colitis for sure, IBD a real possibility and being put on a special diet, I was reminded by my wonderful spouse to look at what “I can” eat and not what “I can’t.” Also being reminded to not “over think” the disease and to take it one day at a time.

Sometimes being to skeptical and analytical causes you to becoming too much involved in the “I can’t”. For personalities like mine, we need to be careful of not over analyzing, staying positive and keep things in perspective. We always should look for the good, but should also be just as much aware of the dangers that could be hidden.