Results from a Positive Attitude
The biggest challenge with seeing the benefits of a positive attitude is where the rubber meets the road as they used to say. I know plenty of people who collect positive quotes, listen to recordings, post affirmations around the room, and then sit back and wait for wonderful things to happen. And nothing does.
Why? After all, we’ve been talking about the benefits of a positive attitude so why is it that some don’t really see the results of that. There are several reasons why it may not work.
- They don’t really believe it.
Lots of people will adopt a practice of a positive attitude with the outlook of “well, I don’t really go for this kind of junk.” They “tried” it because someone kept insisting they should or they read about it somewhere and so they try it just for the sake of being able to say, “I tried it and it doesn’t work!” This is actually very common for a lot of things. People seek more confirmation of the negative than they do the positive.
There is no real magic in the words themselves, so posting it up or listening to it or even saying it without really internalizing it will be, for the most part, a waste of time. That’s why when you read affirmations to yourself, it is critically important that you read them with emotion in your voice. It is the emotion that cues the subconscious to accept what you are saying. Without commitment behind the words, they are just meaningless words with no impact.
- They haven’t really defined what they want to happen
Okay, so we have been working on building and maintaining a positive attitude and we wait for things to happen and….nothing. Well, what did you want to happen? Something? Anything? How do you know it didn’t? I listened to a talk by John Earl Shoaff the other day and he emphasized this. People come up with dreams and goals but they aren’t very specific. “I want a Mercedes. ” Okay, I have a old, beat-up 1955 Mercedes, you want that? “No, I want a new Mercedes!” Okay, you didn’t say that before. You have to detail what you want if you expect it to happen.
- They are waiting to feel ready to act.
This is probably the biggest one. People work under the mistaken belief actions come from thoughts. Think good things and good things will happen and then you can start to action. Be positive and you will then become motivated and then take action.
The Lie of Feelin’ Like It
Nothing can be farther from the truth! Sometimes you will be motivated and take action on that motivation. The majority of the time, however, you will not feel very motivated. We talked about the enemy of resistance before and here is another place where it will raise it’s ugly head ready to take you down. Resistance will come up with all kinds of reasons not to act, including the dreaded “I’m waiting to feel (ready) (motivated) (inspired) before I begin. Fill in the word of your choice.
But it’s actions that need to come first. Tony Robbins speaks of the importance of action in truly committing us to the goal:
“A real decision is measured by the fact that you’ve taken a new action. If there’s no action, you haven’t truly decided.”
Go ahead and take a step and then another. Once you accomplish something, then you will feel motivated, creative, inspired, and ready to do more. Action is the resistance killer. Action is muse that allows us to dream bigger dreams and set sky high goals. Action is the driver behind having a real positive attitude.
Don’t wait. ACT! You can do this, you know you can!
Action Plan
- What one thing have you put off waiting for inspiration or motivation? What one action can you take NOW to step in that direction? Do it NOW!
- Keep taking actions until you see an accomplished result. How do you feel now? Motivated? Good. Now go dream big dreams!