It is a known belief that positive thinking leads to positive outcomes, which in many cases, offset “bad things”, but there is a fine line between good and bad things if examined closely.

Good things may be considered to be events that make us happy, give us a feeling of ease, or provides compensation in some sort of way. On the contrary, bad things can be occurrences that bring on sadness, cause grief, and result in losses. How we perceive “good” and “bad” is our own choice, but because many of us choose to believe good yields to joy we often forget that our perception of bad may be in our favor more than we know.

For example, if we are unemployed and seeking employment, have been interviewed numerous times, yet rejected we can easily think of our rejection as bad. Regardless of how many jobs we've been turned down from once we finally become gainfully employed we can look back, and see that our patience, perseverance, and strife led us to the “right job” and our rejection, after all, was a good thing.

Good and bad are a balanced equation intertwined into one. Neither one necessarily outweighs the other. They create an understanding for the cycle of life. It is imperative that when we are stressed about situations that we evaluate them, and make the decision to overcome them. When we choose to surpass our so-called problems – bad things we can be assured that they are only our perceptions. Hence, the good and bad are named elements that help us decipher how to get through life's events.

Sonja Mattison currently resides in Clarkston, Georgia. She is an inspirational writer and the author of Thoughts of Mattii40. She earned her Bachelor of Arts at Norfolk State University in Norfolk, Virginia.