Pondering Positivity

How you face life each day largely determines how you feel about your day. If you have a positive approach to life and to yourself, even your toughest days will feel tolerable. Thinking positively is the key to living a satisfying, fulfilled life.

Mitchell Moore’s Famous Quote About Positivity

Mitchell Moore is believed to have once said, “Attitude is everything.” In other words, how you approach your day or a situation determines how that day or situation will go. Thinking positively is a fairly simple personal rule to remember. However, putting it into practice in your daily life can be more challenging

Peter McWilliams’ Thoughts on Positivity

“The road to positivity is strewn with the abandoned vehicles of the faint-hearted.” Peter McWilliams made this astute observation about the challenges of thinking positive. To translate this idea into everyday English: To be positive, you must persevere.

Norman Vincent Peale and The Power of Positive Thinking

Norman Vincent Peale, author of The Power of Positive Thinking, formulated several fascinating thoughts about approaching life in a positive way. He said, ‘”We tend to get what we expect.’” One interpretation of this saying is that whatever we expect or believe will occur will indeed come to pass. So, if you believe that you’ll do well on a work project, you will. If you expect not to do well, then you likely won’t.
Dr. Peale also said, “Change your thoughts and you change your world.” The beauty of this statement is that it gives incredible hope. The implication is that if you can take hold of your thoughts, you can think your way into success. Positivity rules again.

Positivity: Illustration and Discussion

Consistently thinking positive can be challenging. Maybe your self-confidence isn’t as strong as it could be. If this is the case, you may need to take a leap of faith to think positively. Perhaps you ponder, “But what if I make a fool of myself?” or, “Maybe my co-worker is smarter than I am.”

Consider this illustration:

You’re up for a promotion at work. How will you think about the situation? What do you believe about yourself as it relates to the possibility of receiving the promotion? Here are three ways to approach this matter:

1. Assume you won’t be selected for the job. After all, you didn’t get straight A’s in school. And that new Vice President hardly ever speaks to you. You think you won’t be chosen.
2. Decide you don’t care either way. Whether you get the promotion or not isn’t important. It doesn’t matter. This way of thinking demonstrates the easy way out. You don’t have to put any emotional energy into something when you don’t care.
3. Dare to think you’ll be selected to receive the promotion. You believe you’re smart enough to be chosen. And you know that you work hard, so others probably see that you’re a good candidate. You’ve decided to think positive!

How can you come out of this situation feeling fine, no matter what happens?

Let’s consider each approach to the possible promotion.

Most likely, if you respond like #1 and don’t receive the promotion, you won’t feel very positive. After all, not getting the promotion will now serve as confirmation of what you believe about yourself, that you won’t be successful. However, even if you do get the promotion, you may believe you don’t deserve it. Because of a negative approach, you may feel unhappy even if you get what you want.

If you react as in #2, then you don’t care either way. You’ve convinced yourself that nothing is important enough to invest in it. Your life goes on the same. When you don’t care about something, the end result is irrelevant. However, if the end result truly doesn’t matter, you may not particularly enjoy getting the promotion if you actually do. You’ve deprived yourself of joy by completely detaching from the situation.

But if you react like #3, you go into the situation feeling hopeful, excited, and energized. If you’re chosen, you’ll be reinforced for your positive thinking and re-energized for the work ahead of you.

Even if you aren’t selected, you’ll only experience brief disappointment. After a short letdown, you’ll remind yourself that with your intelligence and perseverance, something good will soon come along. You simply can’t lose by approaching life’s events with positive thinking.

Pondering positivity is worth your time. When you aren’t sure about how to think about a situation, remember Norman Vincent Peale’s quotes on approaching life in a positive way. Consider Peter McWilliams’s point and Mitchell Moore’s famous quote. Attitude truly is everything; with enough positivity, you can change your life.

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