You always hear about positive thinking. How it benefits you, it benefits your mindset, and makes you a healthier person.
Yet most of us live in Real World U.S.A., where we're faced with constant money woes, unstable job markets, people who are very negative, terrorism, a President and Congress that refuses to try to cut debt, constant pressure from the media to look skinny, and the list goes on and on.
It's very easy to be negative. You can rag on anything you want to and people will generally agree with you. And the funny thing that I notice about negativity, when people hear it, they don't push back. Someone will say "we're in a crisis" and everyone will nod their heads and murmur agreements. Occasionally you have people push back, like Coach Rick Pitino did in 2000, when his Boston Celtics were getting pounded in the press. He said at a press conference "all the negativity in this town sucks". He's right. Negativity bombards us from all sides.
I'm guilty of it too.
Yet something snapped inside of my brain on Saturday when I was in Charlotte. I don't know what it was, or why it happened, but I finally decided to cut the pity party crap, listen to Dr. J and find ways to work out when there's only a few minutes in the day, stop reading the newspaper for actual news, quit worrying about what will happen at my company, be nicer to people, enjoy music more, etc. My life is pretty damn good. Why should I be negative?
The other day, we had a woman come to our house to do some blood and urine analysis for my life insurance policy. My numbers were outstanding. (120/77, 60 resting heart rate). My weight was up a little bit (about 8 pounds since my 1/2 Ironman) but realistically, that's not bad. I've always had slightly high blood pressure, so the fact I'm hovering at what is "normal" makes me happy.
Realistically, it's time to be positive. Because let's face it; on the Ironman course, negative thoughts are going to be coming at me from all directions. I'm going to need as much good juju as possible!
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ReplyDeleteAt the University where I work, negativity is rampant! People love to complain about the place. But even there I can find positive people. I spend time with them and either stay away from the negative ones or just tune them out like I was Bart Simpson :-)
Maybe I need ot wear those Bose "Negative" Noise Cancelling Headsets in the hospital :-)