Positive Mental Attitude
How To Be A Positive Thinker In A Negative World

How do you know if you have a positive mental attitude and why should you be bothered about it at all? Recently I got to thinking - "what does someone with a positive mental attitude look like?" Well let me answer these questions by giving an outline of someone who has such a positive outlook. I use a man in this example, but it could just as well be a woman.

A Positive Mental Attitude

May I introduce to you Mr Odi Nary. Wait a minute, I hear you say, that is not a very interesting or exciting name. No, it's not and I am sure you expected a name such as Superman or Iron-man or something like that. But no, that is far from it. See, having a positive mental attitude has nothing to do with being unrealistic or being some macho, invulnerable and unstoppable person.

It has everything to do with being yourself - an ordinary person with some extraordinary ways of looking at things.

Mr. Odi Nary is totally your average guy who just happens to look at life and events in life a certain way.

He expects the best outcome in every situation.
Odi has high expectations and believes that every cloud has a silver lining. He tries to look for the positive side of everything and believes that no matter what bad thing happens to him, it can be turned around for good.

There are many times he has done this too, so it's nothing new to him and he knows it is a principle that works.He knows how to turn every situation around for his good, and if he can't, he knows how to accept things and adjust course.

He never lets life get him down…for too long.
Unfortunately, Mr. Odi Nary, being human, sometimes does get down in the dumps in the immediate period after something goes wrong. But not for long. He has learnt from experience that there isn't much he can do to stop this - he just has to go through with that phase. But he has also learnt that he has control over how long it lasts.

He can actively cut the period of "mourning" short, pick himself up and move on. But he never fights the feeling, just how long it lasts. Fighting it is a waste of energy and futile.

He expects the best for and from others.
This is inevitable because in expecting the best of himself and his circumstance he also has to expect the best of and for other people. After all, no man is an island - he knows that his success depends a lot on other people's success. So in supporting and expecting others to succeed he is adding to his own positive experiences through this positive mental attitude.

He prefers to see the glass half full.
The trick here, Odi has come to learn, is to focus on what you have and not on what you do not have. If you say the glass is half empty then you are focusing on what you do not have - you do not have the air filling the top of that glass, it is not yours.

However, seeing the liquid in the glass is focusing on what you have and more importantly, what you can control. You can drink it, throw it away, keep it for later or share it with someone else - that's all in your control. What are you going to do with the air? Nothing - it is not in your control.

He stays away from negative people
Mr. Odi Neary used to have a friend whom he tried very much to change in terms of his thinking habits and negative talk. But, after many failed attempts he found that he was actually beginning to become negative himself rather than his friend becoming more positive.

He gave up that fight long ago in the realisation that we are all responsible for ourselves as adults and no one can change us if we ourselves have no desire to change.

So now he chooses his friends carefully and never shares ideas with anyone he thinks will only trample on them and show him only the negative aspects of his plans.

He is a realist
Unlike the common view, he does not have his head up in the clouds. He knows that having a positive mental attitude does not mean ignoring the facts. It means being fully aware of the facts and dealing with him. See, he is familiar with the Stockdale Paradox:

“Retain faith that you will prevail in the end, regardless of the difficulties AND at the same time, confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.”

With a positive mental attitude to help him he does not get overwhelmed by the grim facts facing him at any one time. He knows he can surmount them and puts plans in place to do so.

He is happy in his own skin.
He sees himself as being as well endowed with intelligence and ability as anyone else. As far as he is concerned, there is nothing that another human being has that he does not have. All that matters is his will. If he wants it he can have it.

This has also led him not to idolise anyone. He realizes that all the movie stars, singers, business leaders and others that have achieved great things are people just like himself. They just happened to have achieved extraordinary things and if he works hard at what he does there is no reason why he too cannot have a similar level of success.

But this doesn't mean he compares himself to other people. He knows it's not about them and being like them, but rather being the person he wants to be. It's a one-man race for him.

He believes in God.
More than anything else this one fact has been the backbone of his positive mental attitude: he believes in God.

As it is said in the Bible: "If God be for us, who can be against us?"

And also: "We know that all things work together for good to them that love the Lord…"

What else is there to say? He has come to trust fully in this and he has never been disappointed because he believes that God gives hope and he gives victory in any circumstance - if we trust in him.

So do you have a positive mental attitude like Mr. Odi Nary?Acquire it. Practice it. Live it.

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