Hot, Cold. Up, Down.

Valentine's Day Pizza Makes Me Feel Good

Pumping Veggie Oil in Iowa When It's 12 Degrees Makes Me Feel Bad

I've heard it said before, "You can't always control your surroundings, but you can always control your attitude about it." The implication is that whether things are going your way or not, if you have enough willpower, you should be able to react positively. And probably not cuss.
But the question I have to ask after my 28 years of life is this---is this really a universal truth, or was this rule written by people who just don't get upset about stuff? People who don't feel the emotional pain quite so severely? People who are not red-headed golfers?
When it comes to physical pain, our human experience seems to be pretty standard. Take a positive thinker, a negative thinker, and break both their kneecaps. Neither one's going to be whistlin' Dixie, and no one would blame them. But what if that same positive and negative thinker both failed an important test, or double faulted to lose the championship, or sat up with a baby that wouldn't stop crying at 3 AM? Just how bad do those things hurt?
I think those things hurt and upset some people more than others, and when it upsets people bad enough, they respond with reflexive negative acts that other people may not understand. Sadly, there are sometimes tough consequences from these acts that have to be dealt with once the pain has faded. In a perfect world, we would all be able to avoid those consequences through the strength of our good attitudes. In the real world, at least the one I live in, about the best we can do is help each other deal with those consequences in love and do the best we can to avoid those situations in the future.

Opinions on this subject?