One day I went sailing with my father, I was eight or nine years old. We got to the boat in the morning, it was a clear sunny day.
I said, “What a beautiful day, I love the sun!”
My father said, “Let’s see if it lasts. Usually when we get out the fog fills in.”
And I thought, “If we get a sunny day you don’t deserve it, Dad.”
Cynical is not my thing.
Being cynical feels to me like a sin toward life, God and everything that is good and positive.
I’ve been asked, “What tools do you use to help you be positive? Don’t tell me it’s just a ten minute meditation, or affirmations, it can’t be as simplistic as that. What do you actually do?”
What I do, for whatever it is I’m working on, is exactly the things that are minimized in the question. It is simplistic, as they say, but it ain’t easy.
I meditate five minutes every morning, I listen to affirmations anytime I can and I state affirmations as often as necessary. I end and begin each day affirming what I care for and being grateful for what I have. Anytime someone says or does something that feels negative or against my vision, I either say something to correct it, possibly in a light and humorous way, or I immediately disconnect.
But the simple truth is this. I choose to be positive, every moment of every day, as best I can. Because it is a choice, it is only mine to make and it is my responsibility.
People say, “Yes it is a choice, but…”
The “but” tells me that they think there’s an external solution. There isn’t. It’s all up to me. Because even the meditations, the affirmations and everything else that I do are just actions that result from my choice to be positive and to move in a certain direction.
And there’s nothing simpler. Sometimes it’s not easy, but it sure is simple. I hear a negative thought in my head, I state the opposite and I keep repeating it until I get busy doing something or the negative thought is gone.
It requires desire, belief, passion and determination, continuously. Until it becomes second nature. And it is absolutely worth it.
Imagine what would’ve happened if some of the great heroes of our history were cynical.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed… unless it’s inconvenient.”
Franklin D. Roosevelt’s first inaugural speech, “Only thing we have to fear is fear itself…but a tyrant is pretty scary too, a bully, and I know many of you are terrified of public speaking.”
Steve Jobs, Stanford University commencement speech, “Your time is limited, don’t waste it living someone else’s life… unless, of course you want them to pay your bills, then to heck with your dreams.”
Which speech do you want to give?
You can be cynical about having $10 million in the bank. You can be cynical about falling in love. You can be cynical about a sunny day.
You can be cynical, it’s your choice. Go ahead. See how life turns out.
You may say, “Based on my experience it’s hard not to be cynical…”
But being cynical is not a subconscious reflex, like the beating of your heart. It’s your choice to be cynical. Your thoughts can be changed. You can choose which thoughts you want to think. You can.
I highly recommend choosing belief and positivity.
See how life turns out.
