Is your glass half empty or is it half full?

Which is it?

We have all heard of this expression: 
"Is your glass half empty or half full?" While some may argue their glass is half empty, others may say it's half full. However, I've taken a different approach to this expression which is commonly used rhetorically to indicate that a particular situation could be a cause for optimism or pessimism, which ever way you see it. 

Lemons for lemonade?

When you look at your glass half full, you are considered to have yourself a good attitude (yay me). It goes along with another popular expression, "when life gives you lemons, make lemonade." However, when you look at your glass and say its half empty all of a sudden, you are labeled as negative, a pessimist, bad attitude (need I say more...?). 


However, I wouldn't test your level of happiness on what's in the glass but instead look at it as if you are being logical or reasonable. As a smart ass, the logical answer to the question would be that it is neither or both. When you are pouring something into your glass, it is half full. When you are drinking from your glass, it is half empty. 


Which then leads us to another question: "How can the glass be neither half full or half empty when it's always full- half filled with liquid, the other half with air?"


Think about it this way: you are a pilot and you are in flight to your destination (say Cancun, Mexico- kind of sounds nice right now, right? depends on how you see it ;] ). You look down at your gauge and it is smack dab right in the middle between empty and full. Do you look down at the gauge and say "Oh, my tank is half empty. I need to look at places to refuel" or do you look at your gauge and say, "oh, I have a whole half of a tank of fuel left! No problem! My tank is half full!" I'll let you answer that...


Now let me throw you for another loop:
What if you look at the glass as half empty and therefore are motivated to go and get it filled? ( I know I wouldn't...I'm too lazy). Would that not be positive instead of negative? And what if seeing it half full leads to complacency? It is kind of like what Tao has to say: 
"the importance of emptiness and that the empty glass is opportunity and therefore the person viewing the glass as empty is actually positive and not negative."


The part of your life you have not lived yet are the empty pages waiting for you to take the pen into your hand and write your own story. 


There is a time and a place for positive attitudes and fortunately that is most of the time. However, negative thoughts often times are warning signals that your tank may just be half empty. Time to start looking quickly for a refueling station.