11/11/11 Doomsday prophecies include a comet raining fire on the Earth. Asteroid image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

So 11/11/11 is coming up! What will it mean for you? There are several doomsday prophecies that tie this date to the supposed 12/21/12 end of the world/awakening. There’s also plenty of scientific information to debunk the prophecies. So, will 11/11/11 be a good day, or a bad day? Guess what? It’s going to be what you make of it.

Recently, a friend asked whether we should categorize the things that happen to us as “good” or “bad,” or if, taking a more Zen viewpoint, we should just say that things  “are,” and move on.  My feeling is that things are going to happen, and how we perceive a given situation is a matter of personal choice.  Here is how I answered my friend: Whether something is “good” or “bad” is relative – and it’s important to remain focused on the positive. Every bad thing that happens can be a learning experience; if it’s something that causes grief or anger, it’s important to recognize those feelings and deal with them – not gloss over them with a “positive” paintbrush – but eventually, after the healing is done, if you have let yourself grow from that experience then it can be very good. It’s a matter of making a conscious decision, a choice, to always be learning and always be looking for the positive.

It wouldn't go down like this.

As Johnny Mercer said, even Jonah, trapped in the dark belly of the whale, knew: you gotta “Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate” the positive, eliminate the negative, and don’t mess with Mr. In-Between.

The fact is, as pointed out in Everett T. Suter’s book, Succeed In Spite of Yourself, when we have a positive outlook on life, we “raise our sights to higher levels. We look beyond the lower need-levels” and are able to concentrate on achieving goals and building our future. Assuming, of course, that we have a future – let’s hope humanity doesn’t get wiped out anytime soon.

As for the doomsday prophets, they can take comfort in the wisdom of Keats: “Failure is, in a sense, the highway to success, inasmuch as every discovery of what is false leads us to seek earnestly after what is true.”