Kobayashi Maru. in Whey and Sonic Screwdrivers.

Attitude is a funny thing. If you tell someone, "You need to think positive!" the vast majority of people are going to reply, "You need to go fuck yourself!"

It's difficult to tell people that they need to take control of their lives. Many things are NOT in our control. Telling someone, "You need to DO something about this" sounds very much like blaming someone for their own problems. Some things are very much in our control, no doubt. Other things are not, and sometimes it's just very fucking hard to endure those difficult things. Maybe we can't change our circumstances. But we can change how we approach them.

For me, it comes back to the Kobayashi Maru. One of my few saving graces is that I don't believe in the no-win scenario. If things get back, really bad, really THAT bad, then change the conditions of the test. This is awfully close to changing our "circumstances", and maybe it is. But if we're desperate enough, we're willing to do things that maybe we weren't before. Maybe we won't play by the same rules we thought we would before.

Or maybe we're due for a really terrible day and there's nothing we can do about it. The Kobayashi Maru is a test for character. Do you send a distress call? Do you arm photon torpedos and go down in flames? Do you go back to your quarters and just not deal?

Life isn't a starfleet simulator. No matter how terrible, all days end. There is no pass/fail on how well you performed. All we can do is do whatever we can to make ourselves feel the best. Maybe some days, a photon torpedo-attitude is warranted. And other days, maybe crawling back into bed is what will make us feel best. But ultimately, we need to know we're giving ourselves the best chance to succeed. That's the test of character.