When someone asks you how you are doing today, what do you say? Do you tell them that you’re tired or that it’s a Monday?
The most successful people I’ve ever known – the ones who were truly a success and not just climbing the ladder trying to be a success – those successful people were genuinely happy.
When I was 18, I had a summer job as a receptionist at a mortgage company. One day my boss drops this tiny book on my desk and says I want everyone in my office to read this. I looked at the booklet and read the words “The Power of Positive Thinking” by Norman Vincent Peale.
I read it diligently and created study cards which I still have today. My favorite line from the book is “Throw your heart over the bar and your body will follow.” It was about a trapeze student who was supposed to do a flip over a high bar, and the student froze and said “I can’t do it, I can’t do it” in a fit of panic. The instructor famously replied “Throw your heart over the bar and your body will follow”. The point is, whatever we do in life, we often tell ourselves thousands of reasons of why we can’t until we make the “can’t” a reality. When we jump all in with our heart, our bodies instinctively will follow.
So the Power of Positive thinking turned on the light bulb in my head around how self-talk creates actualization. And realizing this, I started to look at the habits of the successful people and the less successful people in my life and started to notice the trend of having a positive attitude.
One of the things that I noticed of the top executives at StraightSource and the executives that we worked with in the Fortune 500 companies, is they all had a positive-attitude, seemingly all the time. When things were tough, they knew how we’d get through it. When things were mundane, my big boss would sing in the halls and on the elevator, and lighten up the world everywhere he stepped. My father-in-law, a successful sales guy, would always say “Awesome” whenever anyone asked him how his day was going. If you didn’t know him, you’d think wow, great, what are you drinking and how can I get some? But I did know him, and knew this guy always had a positive attitude 24-7 and being the daughter of the most negative man in the universe, I didn’t think it possible that someone could be so happy all the time. So I asked.
He said no one wants to hear about your troubles, they only want to hear about your joys. They aren’t looking for you to bring them down, they need you to bring them up, so I use this little answer to be a pick-me-up for others…and you know what, I am always doing awesome!
My father-in-law had said it over and over again that he believed it. It wasn’t a lie, it was a mantra.
The words we speak over our lives become who we are. If we think positive all the time, we will become positive. Likewise, if we think negative, can’t-do thoughts, we will create a self-fulfilling prophesy. >> Soon to come! Toolbox add from Dr. S on how to break the habitual negativity and what to do when depression starts to take hold.
So today, the first gift I give you for your toolbox is the power of positive thinking. You can read the book by Norman Vincent Peale, or a thousand other books out there on the topic. You can read memoirs of the great leaders or mantras of the record breakers. One thing you’ll find that they have in common is fundamental belief that their goal is achievable if they just keep trying.
“It always seems impossible until it’s done.” – Nelson Mandela
I’ve got some thoughts about the links between positivity, happiness, and gratitude, which I hope to share in the coming weeks. What are your thoughts?
MintROI 