Half Empty-Half Full: This Day Kinda Bites

As a kid my dad allowed me to tag along on a few adventures that were probably above my maturity scale. I saw the PG-13 rated Last Dragon movie at 7 years old. Don't worry, I was emotionally ready for this experience.

I remember sitting next to my dad in 1985 when he made the phone call to the movie theater to make sure I wasn't seeing anything that would permanently scar me.

I’ll never forget watching Leroy Green use "The Glow" to take out Sho'nuff.

Life changing.

I will also never forget the time my dad let me ride along when he drove author Norman Vincent Peal and Ruth Stafford Peal to their speaking engagement.

At the time I was too young to appreciate Mr. Peal's book The Power of Positive Thinking. Later in life - without a doubt - some of the tools in this book helped me maintain some sanity during some crazy years.

“Stand up to your obstacles and do something about them. You will find that they haven’t half the strength you think they have.”

-Norman Vincent Peal

Along with Peal's positive words dad also gave me a recording of radio announcer Earl Nightingale's broadcast of a show he did called The Strangest Secret. I would recommend listening to this in it's entirety, but let me give you the simplest break down of the secret Nightingale shares:

"We become what we think about"

-Earl Nightingale

 

Its sounds simple enough, but start paying attention to what you think about first. Then start practicing the re-wiring and we find this simple secret requires some heavy mental lifting. The payoff of this practice delivers in ways we never thought possible.

Here are 4 additional Positive thinking tips at no additional charge.

1. Be a Smile Chucker: Throw smiles at everyone. Anyone. You will notice most people rarely make eye contact and fewer will smile back, but a day spent chucking smiles at everyone is always well spent.
2. Watch out for Energy Vampires: This one comes from John Gordon and his book the Energy Bus.
3. Watch a Western Movie: My friend Deb shared this with me as one of her many life secrets to staying positive. Why watch a Western Movie? When we face a series of negative experiences it's easy to feel like were are losing at this thing called life. I'm more into the martial arts scene, but a western movie will work. Watch something were the good guy wins in the end. Pull out a movie were the underdog turns things around after a couple hours of getting his or her butt handed to them. Watch Rudy, Rocky, or Sea Biscuit and see if watching something positive turns your thinking around.
4. Gratitude List: This little gem I forget about to often, but the process of writing out a list of things we are grateful for is a huge positive boost. It's impossible to be negative and grateful at the same time. A variation of writing out the gratitude list is to run through the alphabet A-Z in your mind and think of something that starts with each letter you are thankful for. This is a great way to re-wire while you are trying to fall asleep, and negative thoughts seem to be stuck on re-play.

Have a positive day :)