A Positive Life and a Negative Mind?

I don’t think so. We become what we think, or … we are now what we thought yesteryear. Your thoughts and beliefs drive what you do and what you say. You can’t override, for very long, what is deep inside with anything other than the truth.

We have all been actors in the play of life. We “pretend” we are someone other than who we really are. Most of the time, we don’t have a clue about our pretending, other than the stress the acting creates.

But, eventually we are found out, or hopefully we find the acting first, and then the truth is revealed. We are seeing a lot of this revealing in the financial world today aren’t we? We can “pretend” to ourselves and others that we are positive people with open minds and sincerely believe we are.

Time will show that deep inside, the beliefs and thinking that drive our lives are indeed negative in many ways. We may focus on what is wrong, complain, criticize, or infect others with any number of other negative outputs.

I was in a brainstorming session with leaders that claimed to be positive without question. It was amazing the numbers of “you can’t do that” and “that will never work” “we’ve tried that before” statements. I’m sure I was part of it myself without ever realizing. Hmmm?? We do see others as we are and not as they are. This is getting painful.

My purpose is not to point fingers but to bring awareness to our words and self-talk. Our conversations with others and ourselves are where the truth will lie. Concentrated listening to these conversations is one way we can determine if we are fooling ourselves about being positive. Asking a close friend or spouse is bound to uncover the painful truth.

Are you excited about your problems?

How would your life change if you could actually be excited about your problems? Would you have more energy? Be more enthusiastic? Enjoy work and life more?

You can make a powerful decision and start being excited about your problems. Here are a few reasons why:

• Your past problems have fostered some of your most valuable personal and professional development.
• Many of your strengths are associated with problems.
• A part of life is merely managing, solving, or dealing with one problem after another after another. It will never stop, so why not put energy around finding the solution.
• You will have greater clarity for finding solid solutions.
• You’ll experience energy rather than heaviness.

Turn the problem into an opportunity. Make the choice to enjoy your next problem which, I’m sure, will be yet today.

A letter from your competition

Hi,
I’m your competition and I’m here to offer suggestions. We’ll get to the swampland sale in Florida soon, but first, let me ask, “How’s your stress level?” That’s what I thought. Really tough times aren’t they?

Well, as your competition, I want to encourage you to continue ignoring the stress buildup. The advantages of high stress are surprisingly broad. You will be sick more often, sleep poorly, experience lots of tension, struggle with concentration, and don’t forget your drained energy and lower productivity.

As you might know, all of this leads to that powerful and infectious – negative attitude – that we love to see as your competitor. Consistent negativity of course might lead to depression, which is the number one reason for missing work.

Oh, the continual chatter about how bad things are, coupled with continuous complaining I’m sure inspires your company to dig in and do a better job doesn’t it?

We believe the research showing stress to be possibly the biggest health problem in America to be false. It was likely researched by a few drug companies wanting to sell pills. Speaking of drug companies, the fact that stress may increase your healthcare costs is not important since these costs are surely projected to come down soon.

Congratulations on superbly ignoring stress. We sincerely thank you. Please call for more tips any time.

Worst regards,
Your competition

So why don’t we do more about personal stress and stress in the workplace? What are the reasons or excuses we use? I have my list, but I’d love to know yours. Please comment below so we all gain understanding. Thank you.