A Positive Attitude

Have you ever seen the Saturday Night Live skit about Debbie Downer? If not, you have to see it. It's funny, but it really also proves the point made in this post. Click here to watch.

Debbie ruins everything with her negative outlook on pretty much any subject. Even at Disneyworld, in the above sketch, she makes all of her friends and family upset by her pessimistic comments. Obviously, the extent of a personality such as hers is exaggerated, but I have met people somewhat like this before. It's really a hard thing to be around someone who is negative much of the time, and keep a positive attitude yourself.

I myself at times have been very negative and have watched that drain the positivity right out of those I come in contact with. No one likes to be around people that are like this.

However, on the flip side, have you ever been around someone who is generally happy and positive? You want to be around someone like this because it makes you feel hope. Even in the midst of problems, these types of people see the light at the end of a tunnel.

President Hinckley tells us in Stand A Little Taller, that we as followers of Christ, have nothing to be gloomy about for very long...

"A POSITIVE ATTITUDE

Serve the Lord with gladness: come before his presence with singing....Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thanksful unto him, and bless his name. ~Psalm 100 2,4

Do you feel gloomy? Lift your eyes. Stand on your feet. Say a few words of appreciation and love to the Lord. Be positive. I do not know how anybody who is a member of this Church can feel gloomy for very long. This is the day which has been spoken of by those who have gone before us. Let us live worthy of our birthright. Keep the faith. Nuture your testimonies. Walk in righteousness and the Lord will bless you and prosper you, and you will be a happy and wonderful people."~Gordon B. Hinckley

If everyone could "Stop and smell the roses..." so to speak and decide to recognize our blessings more, then the effect on each other would be inevitable. Positivity is contagious. If we spend too much time thinking negatively, we will lose opportunities to find the happiness that awaits. Alexander Graham Bell said, "When one door closes another door opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us."

And along those lines, how can we have any faith in ourselves and accomplishing anything in this life, if things that we do are laced with pessimism? Helen Keller, someone who in my opinion could have lived and wallowed completely in self-pity, and no one would have ever question why or thought it wrong, had one of the most positive outlooks in human history.
"No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new heaven to the human spirit. "

She knew that if she dwelled on her deafness and blindness, that she would never accomplish anything in this life. She accentuated the positives and recognized the blessings that she had, and with that, she has changed lives and made history.

We have much to be positive about in this life. One of the positives every person has in common, is that there is always time to change and be better. To make a difference. That leaves endless possibilities at our fingertips, that we all have. Positive thinking gives us power beyond what we think we are capable of. Pep talks and motivational speakers and books are not just for fun...its because positive thinking creates positive action. Negative thinking does the same thing, but with the opposite effect.

And for me, when there is something negative staring me in the face or that I am dealt with in my life, I try to think of the phrase, "This too shall pass". Because it will...and we will emerge stronger than before.

Think not only how positive thinking will bless your life...that is inevitable. But don't under estimate the power your positive outlook will have on those you come in contact with. Be a ray of sunshine in someones day, instead of a storm cloud.