What is Positive?

This first post of my positivity series addresses the "What is Positive?" question.

Positivity is about responding to reality confidently and optimistically, instead of aggravating the already undesirable situation to build up further disappointment, frustration, and anger (which of course does not help in any way).

However, there are some misconceptions about being positive; some think that being positive is to carve a constant state of positiveness like chanting in their heads continuously: "Oh… everything’s so positive… life’s good and great… nothing is bad, everything is beautiful… yada, yada, yada…" whenever they face an obstacle.

Well frankly, that’s just plain ignorance. Positivity isn’t to turn and run away from the ugly truths or painful facts of life and hide away in a mental state of ‘utopia’. It also doesn’t mean enslaving our thoughts in a constant state of "Everything is fine, nothing is wrong" mentality and completely ignore reality.

To properly illustrate what being positive is, compare the two versions of the same story below:

Joe #1 is an average guy on a typical weekday driving to work. He has an important meeting in an hour and he’s stuck at a traffic jam. He looks at his watch and curses with disbelief, only an hour left and if he’s late, he’ll be in big trouble.

And there’s that issue at home with his daughter – She’s just not putting enough effort into her school work. Her math teacher has threatened to fail her if she does not work on improving her grades. If that happens, Joe will need to enroll her in summer school which also means he’ll have to cancel the summer vacation he has planned for the family. Tough luck, he really needed that break away from work, now it just looks like there’s no vacation until the next summer. Good god!

As the traffic slowly crawls ahead, an idiot suddenly cuts in front of him. No signal, nothing, came in just like that. Joe stomps on the breaks, slams his fist onto his horn and cursed at the inconsiderate driver at the top of his lungs.

Loosening his tie, Joe thought to himself "It’s going to be a long day alright".

Joe #2 is an average guy on a typical weekday driving to work. He has an important meeting in an hour and he’s stuck at a traffic jam. He looks at his watch and sighs with relief, he still has an hour and he can use the traffic jam as an opportunity to rehearse his presentation.

Not forgetting the issue at home with his daughter – She’s just not putting enough effort into her school work. Her math teacher has threatened to fail her if she does not work on improving her grades. Joe thought perhaps he could sit down with her this summer and help tutor her to get her back on track. He’ll have to cancel the summer vacation he has planned for the family – which ultimately means the money can be saved for the next vacation (and he can probably make the next vacation grander too).

As the traffic slowly crawls ahead, an idiot suddenly cuts in front of him – no signal, nothing, came in just like that. Joe stomps on the breaks, checked his rearview mirror to ensure the car at the back had sufficient space to stop in time as well.

Loosening his tie, Joe thought to himself "That was real close, what a lucky day".

Now that puts a very clear perspective of positivity, doesn’t it?

In life, things big and small are happening every second of the day. How it happens is not within our control, but how we respond to them is. Choosing to respond to situations positively sets the right mindset and helps us maintain the right attitude when dealing with problems.

A positive mindset enables a much broader perspective thus allowing us to search for better and more creative solutions.

"Positive thinking will let you do everything better than negative thinking will." -- Zig Ziglar

Being positive is about how we make a conscious decision to take the best appropriate action in whatever circumstances (fortunate or unfortunate). In the next posts, I will be sharing several strategies on how to be positive – mainly on how we can set a positive mindset and attitude towards the interpretation of circumstances happening around us.

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