Stay Positive!

A lot has been said and written about positive attitude. As a matter of fact, some people have said that it is the most important missile in the success armoury. I'm really not interested in playing with sweet words; my challenge is how to stay positive when everything around me is negative and crazy. I guess I need to live with the fact that it takes time to grow, and that growth is not sudden, but intentional and deliberate. I have learnt that staying positive is a process and it takes deliberate action to remain positive.
A sure recipe for disaster in life is to assume that you will just stroll through situations without intentionally setting yourself up to stay positive despite the harsh conditions. Let me share with you some of the conscious things I have done to stay positive despite the odds I have faced in life so far. Our elders often say, you may not be able to stop birds from flying over your head, but you can stop them from nesting on your head.

CRY!

CRY! Yes I CRY!  :) I am sure you were not expecting this. But if honesty and practical steps is what you desire from this blog, then come along. Let me state quickly; BEWARE OF THE MAN THAT DOES NOT CRY! That is the gospel truth. The epitome of manhood, the great sage Jesus of Nazareth wept; yes he wept, not cried. Weeping is a higher degree of crying. If he could have wept, I guess every man is permitted to weep as well. Crying helps you release your frustrations. It’s like setting yourself free from all the bottled up emotions resulting from the things dealing with you or vice-versa.....that’s up to you. You need to be dealing with the issues of life and not the other way round. Nonetheless, irrespective of your capacity to deal with the issues of life, we are all human (I guess) and we get to a point that is called the breaking point. At that point we do not know what to do and we get overwhelmed. We feel so defeated and feel the urge to cry. Unfortunately, the society has sold us the lie that men don’t cry...men suck it in. There can be nothing farther from the truth. MEN OUGHT TO CRY! I grew to believe the truth that men don’t cry. My uncles trained me to believe that when you cry, you are a woman and weak. I remember the days when we played football or ran and fell, my uncle will challenge me not to cry. But honestly, crying can be a therapy.

Whats the size?

Without mincing word about this, I will strike at the heart of the issue straight away. No problem has a SIZE. The size of every problem is determined by the sight of the person in the situation. If you allow this statement sink into the fabric of your mind, then you would have all the value this article is worth. When you realize that you are responsible for the size of your problem, then you will discover that you don’t have an adversity size problem, but a SIGHT problem. If you see what you are going through as the biggest challenge in the world, then that is exactly what it will be to you. The moment you size up your problem, you are ready to either fight or flight your way through. Your response or reaction will always be determined by your sight. Your sight can either motivate or de-motivate you. Your attitude towards what life throws at you is determined by how you see what is thrown and the definition you give it. I understand that most things do not have a definition except the one you give to it. So the question is, what size have you given to what you are dealing with or what is dealing with you? Digging deeper, what determines your sight? There are factors that determine how we see. You cannot see more than your level of exposure. The people around you will determine the seeds in you, and the seeds in you will determine what germinates. Lets connect on this blog next week as I write on the factors that determine your sight.