Positive Thinking

One of the most involving discussions we had in our ‘Saturday Special’ was on attitude and positive thinking. It was sparked off by my rather casual introductory comment that the finest outcome of having a positive attitude is that you begin to think positive. The discussion went a bit overboard as a raging debate ensued whether positive thinking was an outcome of positive attitude or is it the other way round? Is it possible to have negative thinking and a positive attitude? Is it possible to train oneself to think positive or learn to have a positive attitude? We had to wait till the next session for everyone to calm down and have a meaningful discussion. We decided that for our purpose it does not make a difference as long as we ensure that we have a positive frame of mind because negative attitude and negative thinking can be major hurdles in the way of happiness and success.

Remember, successful people take their sunshine along wherever they go. As Robert Hastings said, “Places and circumstances never guarantee happiness. You must decide within yourself whether you want to be happy. And once you have decided, happiness comes much easier.” It boils down to ownership again. You decide. You fashion your own environment with your thoughts, your beliefs, your philosophy, your attitude and above all by your actions.

People who will be successful do not wait to feel positive before they act. They act and feel good about having acted. You can see people’s attitude only through their actions. In that sense attitude follows action. Once you get into the action mode you will begin to have positive thoughts. People who start of with negative thoughts for whatever reason are crippled by fear. The only remedy for fear is action. Action cures fear. Action leads to positive thoughts. Positive thoughts lead to positive attitude. You see it comes full circle. So we need not worry whether positive attitude comes first or positive thinking. For people who want to be successful action comes first and everything else follows and everything falls in place. Your action will start a chain reaction and slowly you will exude confidence, energy and positive attitude making you very attractive.

OWNERSHIP

You are responsible for being where you are in your life today. Congratulations if you are successful and living your dream life; you get the credit for creating your dream life. But if you are living a mediocre life and consider yourself to be a failure or are anything less than successful, you and only you have to be blamed for it; no one else shares the blame with you. Maybe you are too young and have just joined a professional course and are pretty happy with what you have achieved in life up to now but are not very sure how life will pan out and are perhaps a bit apprehensive about it too. Let me tell you that the most important thing for you is to brace up to reality and take ownership of your life and take responsibility for the consequences of all your actions. You have to tell yourself that if you are successful in life you will create that success and if you end up on the monumental pile of mediocrity no one else is to be blamed except you.

So first thing you got to do is to take ownership of your life. You will, from now onwards design the life you want to live and not just drift with the wind. Where you will be in life five or ten years from now will depend on the decisions you take, the company you keep and the books you read. But most important of them is being capable of taking decisions for your self. You cannot begin to take decisions for yourself till you own your life and say to yourself that I am responsible for my actions, my success and my failure. You will have to grow up and it takes a decision, a conscious decision, to grow up. Maybe you can take that decision right away. Maybe this is your first independent decision and you want to mull over it. But do not read further till you take this decision. I don’t care if you are fifteen years of age or fifty ; till you take this decision you are still a little boy or a girl. I am writing this for men and women; for ladies and gentlemen; not boys and girls.

Congratulations if you are still reading because it means you have taken the all important decision and crossed the first hurdle to success. Taking ownership of your life is both scary and liberating. Scary because now you know you are on your own and responsible for whatever you do in life. It is very liberating because you have now empowered yourself to achieve whatever you set out to achieve. There is a very illustrative saying: “ To the person you give responsibility, you give power.” Now you are in a position to script your success. Nothing can hold you back. Neither your negative friends or relatives nor any adverse circumstances can stop you from achieving every goal you set yourself because you know you cannot blame them. You have to find a way in spite of them. You cannot make excuses, you cannot blame, you cannot complain. Your attitude will change because you took ownership of your life. You still will not be able to control what happens to you but you will certainly be able to respond the way you want to, to what happens to you. You will become more proactive because you have your own agenda and goal in life. You will create your own circumstances rather than be a product of the circumstances. You will consciously and deliberately inculcate success habits. You will pay attention to details. You will get the results because you own your life. You have now starting to live out your story and it is your responsibility to insure that, at the end of it, you have a great story to tell