10 Reasons to Live a Positive Life
April 6, 2010
Why should you live a positive-oriented life? Why not???!!!!
Some people think maintaining a positive-oriented life, with the belief that the world can be better and we should help it on its way, doesn’t work. To those negative-minded people, positive lifestyles are nothing but platitudes. I know you’ve heard them say it.
So, for argument’s sake — not that we need to argue — here are 10 reasons why it makes sense to live a positive oriented life, in no particular order. This list was never meant to be exhaustive — there are many, many more reasons, and I bet you can think of them off the top of your head. But here are 10 to think about.
1. Here’s the truth — the negative people never really contribute much of anything to this world. Why should they? They’re convinced it won’t work, anyway.
2. Life is a set of challenges — and it’s meant to be such. Overcoming challenges is a part of us — from the first baby steps you take to the challenges of old age. Everything in life is a challenge — raising children, finding work, making a relationship work, getting an education — but above all else, it is the challenges we face, and the way we respond to those challenges, that helps define us as a person. How high we rise in life is largely based on the mountains we seek to climb.
3. Happiness is much more likely when you look at life positively. Why? As I see it, you can go through life concentrating on the flowers, or concentrating on the fertilizer (substituting for a more earthy word). Concentrate on the flowers, you begin to see beauty all around you. Concentrate on the fertilizer, and all you see is — fertilizer. Sure, nobody wants to ignore the fertilizer to the point where you step in it, but that doesn’t mean you should go around admiring its fine bouquet either. When we look for the positive things in life, that tends to be what we find, and happiness follows, like the dawn follows the night.
4. Positive outlook is more rational. Negative people never usually proclaim themselves as being negative. They claim to be “realistic.” Funny how these “realists” never seem to see the real good things around them, but only the bad. Maintaining a positive outlook is a more rational approach to life — because it’s the outlook that brings with it ideas and possibilities. That’s the “real realistic” view.
5. Being positive is more healthy. I’ve seen it countless times in the national media. People who have a better outlook on life tend to be healthier. I don’t know if it’s the positive thoughts, the positive actions, or the positive path they take to life’s health challenges — but being positive seems to bring about a longer, better life. A friend of mine lived until he was 102. When I asked him what I should do, he responded with two words: “Keep Smiling.”
6. A positive outlook brings with it a better mental health. I remember listening to a recording of the psychiatrist Murray Banks. Dr. Banks made a point of noting that people who keep positive adjust better to the challenges that come their way, mentally speaking. He said that many psychological problems are the direct result of looking at things from the wrong perspective, and as a result, not adjusting to the changes that life brings. When we maintain a positive outlook, we are more equipped to deal with the inevitable setbacks that everyone faces in life, and less likely to drive those setbacks deeply within ourselves, where only a psychiatrist might be able to yank them out (at a few hundred bucks an hour).
7. A positive outlook keeps you more focused. One of the greatest challenges people have in life is staying focused. Whether it’s at work, home, or on the road, people tend to let their focus become more diffused, and as a result, the power that focus brings becomes less and less strong. Like the magnifying glass that you used to concentrate the sun’s rays, when we’re focused, we can set our world and our jobs on fire.
8. A positive outlook allows you to make better decisions in general. People with a more positive outlook tend to see more options, have more patience, and try and work things through more clearly. Negative people tend to focus on the more negative approaches to problems, and as a result, they may limit their alternatives to a significant extent.
9. Great things tend to happen to positive people. Earl Nightingale, considered one of the fathers of the self improvement movement, attributed this to “synergy,” and said it was often the result of seeing new options when you see new opportunities. Let’s look at it this way, as well: seeds tend to grow best in ground that has been well prepared.
10. Attitude is everything. I remember reading it on the wall of my high school gym dressing room (actually, it was the varsity sports dressing room, but I happened to be in there at the time): “Attitude Determines Altitude.” When you have the right attitude, you go higher, do better, and achieve more. Attitude really is one of the keys. As Earl noted in his famous recording, The Strangest Secret: “We become what we think about most of the time.”
There you go — 10 reasons out of many why we should live a positive life. But perhaps the most important reason isn’t on the list: You deserve it.
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