Saturday, Sept 3, 2005: This day had been spent at the P-MAC, the Pete Maravich  Assembly Center at LSU which has been accepting helicopters, ambulances & busloads of people who are the evacuees from New Orleans.

The mix of staff & volunteers is extensive. Border Patrol guards hefting M-16s provide excellent security, although the contrast with the lush, contemporary & stately campus exaggerates the effect.

National Guard personnel provide the logistics of coordinating the extensive supplies, organizing the flow of patients & providers & troubleshooting any rough spots. Nurses, docs, technicians & eager students are all volunteers. The providers have been nephrologists, ER physicians, pulmonologists, orthopedic surgeons & more.

Local physicians have been helpful with describing Louisiana "Good Samaritan" laws, which are applicable for volunteer medical providers in protection for liability concerns.

I was assigned to a team with 2 nurses, 2 techs (med students). The level of respect & communication has been excellent. Folks from this area are pleasantly surprised that health professionals have come from Ohio, Florida & New York.

I have seen very few traumas, but mostly medically related problems, such as diabetics with foot injuries, dehydration, lost meds, cellulitis, COPD exacerbation & many other acute-on-chronic variations.

The stories are multiple: Patient is status post CABG x 2yrs when the levees broke. Water entering the living room & patient dropped the NTG, now floating right out of the house. Patient chases, winds up treading water for 30 minutes with substernal chest pain, finally rescued by patrolling boat.

Volunteer is radiology resident who ended 24-hour shift when Katrina hit; she stayed in a purgatory of providing care for patients for 5 days straight, thru no water, no electricity, extensive bagging of some patients. Rescue finally comes for patients by helicopter, but the medical personnel are told to go to the hell occurring at the Superdome.

People overall have been positive & upbeat thru miserable circumstances. I personally have been feeling very well accepted as a PA, working with my assigned team & the other providers.

It's a fine privilege to be in Baton Rouge today.

Shaping the Future with Positive People Power
By Karen Fiala

We must shape the future & control our destiny.

When we examine our world, what do we see? At this moment, we see mass unemployment, a shaky economic system, 'haves' & 'have nots', corporate dominance & a system of living which is getting worse every day. Ecologically, we've ruined our planet & now it seems that the Earth is fighting back. Now we have global warming, geological changes, tsunamis, volcanoes & constant earthquakes.

Thus, we must wonder how long this materialistic civilization of ours can survive on the path it’s taken. Will we have to wait until the financial system ultimately crashes & falls before we realize that money can't save us?

When will we comprehend that our planet is in turmoil & we, as its inhabitants, need to urgently reconsider our thoughts & actions in order to save ourselves?

For years people have searched for knowledge which would help humanity to progress. Now we're in dire need of a thorough transformation - one which will encourage man to overcome the hurdles placed in his way & will enable us to become empowered.

Do you ever wonder what will happen if the world & its inhabitants continue exactly as they are? The scenarios aren't great. We must realize that if anything is ever going to progress – if our planet is going to survive for future generations – there must be a radical shift.

If our species wishes to live beyond the mid 21st century, it MUST alter its perspective in a major way. We can’t wait for others to make the first move. That’s never going to happen. Instead, every individual must assert his or her right to free choice & free will. All of us will have to unite in harmony & follow a new path.

AlterQuest has a Blueprint for the future & it’s one we need to implement right now. The concept is simple. In essence it recognizes that there are over 6 billion people on the Earth, yet only a small percentage ever get a say in how life should be. Till now, we accepted that a certain few rich & powerful elite could make all the rules & decide how life would play out.

They called the shots with regards to distribution of wealth (unfairly in their favor) & made all the laws & rules which governed what we could & couldn’t do. The rest of us were pawns in a very large, planetary, game of chess.

As we now know, the old way has failed. It has only brought greed, poverty, pollution, the rape of our planet & an unjust social hierarchy. We, THE OTHER 6 BILLION PEOPLE, realize that the end is near & yet we can't imagine that there is a way to turn things around.

Now it’s the 21st century & we’re headed down a path of no return. Unless – & until – the majority of us say “enough is enough”, we’ll have to continue to accept this as a done deal.

Do we have to accept this? Absolutely not!

Albert Einstein said “"We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” Here at AlterQuest, we agree.

Our Blueprint is simple. If people got us into this mess, then people must get us out of it.

By using a new system of Positive People Power - in the format of a global network, consisting of creative think-tanks in every locality - people can come together in a spirit of unity & harmony, to evaluate all the problems facing them in their community, their country & their world.

In this way they'll be able to cease being complacent, take responsibility & will be able to find amazing solutions which will propel them into a sustainable future.

By focusing on problems, such as lack of money, unemployment, poor social services etc, each local AlterQuest Network can use a variety of problem-solving skills & concepts, such as research, lateral thinking, intuition & even prayers, to come up with really practical methods to change their life & the lives of others in their immediate community – for the better & forever.

Once they've tackled the immediate issues & their community is running well, it'll be time to think about changes which will impact on their world for the future.

Shape The Future.

It’s very important that we begin to focus on what sort of world we wish to have in the future.

As we, see it, humanity only has two choices:

1. Stay as we are (or)

2. Change to become a progressive society in a progressive world.

It’s all about choice. We have free will. We’re free to wallow in misery & continue along the same path to destruction or we can resolve to make this a wonderful planet on which to live.

If we choose the first option, we’ll be voting to keep the same lifestyle as now & who-knows-what in the future, but should we select the 2nd option, which is to change our perspective, our destiny could be unimaginably wonderful.

I know which one I’d prefer. Now it’s up to you.

So, How Can You Make A Difference?

The answer is simple.

1. The 1st step is to form an AlterQuest Network in your locality. To do this you should contact AlterQuest & add your name to the list of people who wish to make a practical difference in the world.

2. With our help, you gather others who also wish to take some control over the factors in their life.

3. When there are sufficient people to make a group in your area, you're given guidelines to help in your quest to become a practical problem-solving network. Armed with this information, your network can immediately begin to tackle the difficulties facing the people in your area. There are already many wonderful ideas & concepts in use all over the world & we are compiling a database of these. This is your starting point.

4. Your group can then discuss the many options open to them & see if these are workable in your locality. Ideas such as a local banking system, a barter scheme, a farmers market & a local economy can all assist in local employment opportunities & thus immediately help make a fairer system for all.

5. Add to this any new ideas & inventions which can be produced in your area & you're one step further.

6. If you also begin to focus on shaping the future, for your locality and also on a global scale, you may discover that there are many other concepts just waiting to be introduced.

If you do this, you'll be able to prove that there are answers for the problems facing society today. These solutions aren’t complex or difficult to implement. They’re logical & easy to apply. If we follow them, we will quickly be able to demonstrate that our future can be absolutely magnificent.

We can build a better, brighter world, with equality & justice for all mankind.

We can go forward to utilize new, beneficial technologies.

We can discover new sciences & philosophies.

We can begin to utilize much more of the latent potential of our minds.

We can make man see what is really valuable in life. To bring back a sense of community spirit & to make every person joyful.

We WILL do all these things & we’ll do them using a new-found spirituality.

Why Bother To Change?

We could give you many good reasons why people must change their perspective but if you’re living on this planet & are really just ‘existing’, you’ll already know why. If you watch the news & you see the hardship & struggle others are facing, you’ll also know why.

If you see the political parties bickering & lying to you, there’s yet another reason to change things. If you hear the words ‘ economic recession’ , yet you see the massive profits the corporations are making without having to pay their fair share while you struggle to make ends meet with a low (or no) income, then you know why.

If you can’t get medical help because good, swift treatment costs too much, then you also know why the system has to change.

When you realize that you can’t make a difference on your own but if you could unite, using Positive People Power, just as Mahatma Gandhi did with his population, then you KNOW there could be a small glimmer of hope.

For all these reasons, you must now accept that to sit back and do nothing, is to wait for disaster, however, to stand up & take some action, in the most positive way possible, IS to take some control over your destiny.

Now you have the facts. Now you must decide.

The Power of Positive Thinking

What's the connection between disposition, job satisfaction & high achievers?  

In a hot economy it's hard to keep good people. We found 2 studies that explain how important a positive attitude is to maintaining high job satisfaction & how important it is to give positive people a satisfying & challenging job to do.

We explain what to do to keep these employees once you find them & how to get the best from them while you have them.

What's the connection between a person's disposition & his or her job satisfaction?

Does a positive person with high self-esteem, who thinks positively about life, like their job because they're predisposed to do so?

Does this positive attitude cause positive people to seek out challenging, complex & more interesting work, thus placing them in a situation where they're more likely to like their jobs?

Or, is it the job itself that creates strong job satisfaction? Does a job that's intrinsically more interesting cause a person to like their job & therefore have greater job satisfaction?

What about the other end of the spectrum? Do people with low self-esteem & negative attitude think negatively about their jobs? Is it true that pessimistic people don't seek out challenge?

After all, if it won't work out anyway, why put in the effort? Is it the positive thinking, the great job or is it both.

The answers are yes, yes & yes. Two studies indicate that people who rate themselves highly while valuing their own self-worth, indicating that they have high self-esteem & having a high positive outlook on life tend to perceive their jobs positively.

At the same time, they tend to be in jobs that are more personally satisfying & are more complex. It appears that these people seek challenge & complexity. When they find it, they seek out more. As long as there is a challenge they make great employees.

They Crave Challenge . . . So Give it to Them!

Given these findings, organizations should hire as many positive people as possible. And, so that they'll stay with the organization, make sure that work is challenging & complex. The following should be done to keep & to best utilize positive people:

Make work significant - Make sure jobs are created that are significant in the scheme of things, allowing employees to understand the contribution they're making; i.e., make sure that they understand how their work contributes to the success of the business, customers, or to a greater goal.

If you're an organization going after bigger goals, such as saving the rain forest, making sure that battered women have housing, or children achieve in school, you have a built in motivator. The key is letting a person have a greater association with a bigger part of the work of an organization or work unit as can be logically created.

Don't have them screwing on one bolt. But rather allow them to make one whole piece & cause them to understand how important that one piece relates to the whole; i.e., allow the research engineer to work with the development folks & allow the development engineers to come & work on pieces of a research project.

Each engineer's job will become much more interesting & complex & the organization will be developing expertise in both groups, not possible before. Along with having better job satisfaction, each engineer's work will improve because they'll have a better understanding of how their work fits into the work of the organization as a whole.

Allow autonomy - Allow work to be construed in a way that allows freedom in deciding how work is done. Placing people on self-directed teams in which work is discussed & determined in a group setting is one answer.

Another is to give employees goals & expected outcomes that do not dictate how these outcomes are reached. Create good people focused supervisors who can work thru others be creating goals in the minds of others rather than dictating the process.

Train your supervisors to give as much instruction as is needed to establish goals & to only give as much follow up direction as it takes for each person to be self-actualized in establishing their own work priorities & procedures. This doesn't mean you give up establishing bigger overall priorities or standardizing some procedures to make things easier.

Make it challenging - Create work challenges so that positive people have an outlet for their natural tendency to want challenge. In line with this same thinking create jobs with as much task variety as possible so that work presents more challenge by virtue of change.

In the old days this was called job enrichment. In a clerical work unit, for instance, assign work so that there's some change in the routine & give work in a way that it presents a problem to solve rather than a job to be done.

Been there - Done that!

The researchers in study one were perplexed when they didn't discover that highly positive people felt that their jobs were complex. Yet the researchers in study 2 found that positive people, being positive people during both their childhood & adulthood, were working in complex jobs.

Seemly these are opposite findings. However, this isn't confusing when one looks at how the researchers conducted their research. In study one they asked the participants if they found their work to be complex.

While in study two they looked to see what kind of work the participants are doing. These are 2 very different points of view.

A physicist may be bored with his or her research project & indicate that they don't find their work complex & challenging. Yet the work of a physicist, by its nature, is complex. One must remember that a challenge exists in the mind of the person viewing it.

What's a challenge to one isn't necessarily a challenge to another. As a person moves thru their career, what was once a challenge becomes routine. Positive people are always seeking challenge. At any time in their career they may find their jobs dissatisfying & go on to seek greater challenge.

Therefore, it's most likely that when you ask a positive person if they find there job complex & challenging you're really asking them at what stage of seeking & finding a challenge are you at right now. Have you found challenge?

Are you bored with a previous challenge & want more?

If you want the most from a positive person, ask them to go beyond. Make use of your positive people by plugging them into what's really needed. Create great goals they can go after & then get out of their way while making sure that they're achieving in the areas you want.

Asking them to stand still is counter productive & will lead them to seek challenge elsewhere.

Butterflies

These studies seem to confirm what other studies have found. Positive people make the best employees. Generally other research has found that people with a positive attitude who are conscientious are best at achieving work goals & at performing well on teams.

The reverse has also been discovered. People who are positive about life & develop job dissatisfaction & stress opt to find another job or may even choose to sabotage the organizations they work for. One study Employee Turnover & Sabotage …

A matter of Disposition, Job Satisfaction & Tenure found that this is especially true of positive people for whom job dissatisfaction is highly stressful. Negative people, who don't expect to be fulfilled & challenged, just drone on despite job dissatisfaction. They aren't stressed out.

This points out that allowing these positive high-end achievers to become dissatisfied with their work could be hazardous or at the very least could lead to high turnover.

What kind of employees will be able to meet the challenges of a global economy & participate in making changes to meet the ever constantly changing customer expectations?

What kind of employees will be better able to work in complex & countervailing work environments requiring work toward a challenge. Is it the drones or the butterflies?

Don't clip their wings! But, allow them to see & accept challenge. Make sure that their supervisors can work thru people creating & directing toward challenging goals & who don't stifle or disallow autonomy over work process by not being able to work with & thru others.

Remember, positive people crave challenge. What's challenging today may not be challenging tomorrow. This is especially true of the bright & intelligent ones. You can't ever relax especially in regard to keeping people in jobs requiring a great deal of intelligence & ingenuity.

The very people who are the most positive are probably the people who can perform these jobs well & are just as likely to become bored after challenges are met. They might just leave.

Remember, that supervisors & managers may not be able, just as spouses were unable, to tell who is the highly positive employee. The person demonstrating a negative attitude may be a positive person who is under stress because they don't have a challenge & are bored.

It's best to assume that all of your employees are the best most positive person for the job you could find. Offer them all challenging & complex work. Those that flourish in the environment should be nurtured further. Don't let them get bored or feel unappreciated. There are only so many of these high achievers to go around. So, you have to keep the ones you have & bring out the positive in all.

Relationships with our children may need to change.

Often our relationships with our children center on control & correction. When parents control their children, they're trying to get the children to do things the children don't want to do. Or they're trying to keep the children from doing things they want to do.

i.e., have you ever tried to force a struggling child into a car seat? Have you ever tried to keep children from eating candy before dinner? Have you tried to get your children to do their homework, eat their vegetables or stop fighting with each other?

Sometimes our relationships with our children are based on correction. As parents, we spend a lot of time telling our children what they do wrong. Sometimes our correction even becomes insulting. "How can you be so dumb?" "Why can't you do anything right?" "Can't you think?"

Insults are damaging. They don't give children useful information. They only make them feel bad. Even when we avoid insults, too much correction can be bad. Correction shouldn't be the main part of our relationship w/our children. There are better things to talk about.

Are control & correction always bad?

Normally when Melissa has wanted to follow me up to the attic I've told her, "No. You're too little. Go do something else." Melissa would get mad & complain. I'd yell at her.

One particular day when I went up in the attic I decided to change how I acted. I invited Melissa to go up with me. I helped her climb the stairs & I showed her the things we had stored. We looked in some of the boxes. We had fun together & it only took a few extra minutes.

Opportunity is an excellent theme for a relationship. When children want to try something, we may be tempted to tell them "no." But maybe we should find an acceptable way for them to try it.

Affection is another excellent theme for a relationship. One good way you can build affection into relationships with your children is by taking time to do things that the children like to do.

i.e., little Andy loves to hike. Periodically his mother takes him for a hike. Once in a while his dad takes him for a campout. Andy gets the feeling that his parents really care about him. He feels their affection.

Another good way to show affection is to take time to read to & talk with children when you tuck them in at night.

But how do I control my child?

It's still necessary to keep children from doing damaging things. How can that be done & still keep opportunity & affection at the center of the relationship?

With small children, distraction is an extremely important tool. If a child starts to grab a forbidden object, the parent might try to distract the child with some other interesting object.

Amy was trying to grab the game pieces for the game we were playing. Usually we would yell at her or slap her hands. But we tried something different. I said, "Amy, would you be in charge of rolling the dice for us?" Each time one of us had a turn, we would have Amy roll the dice & then we'd count out our moves & tell her what we were doing. She felt very involved.

In order to make your relationships with your children more positive, think about what you want your relationships to be like. Would you like to have more fun time with each child?

Would you like to nag less often? Think about the way you'd like your relationship to be. Then notice when you say "no" without thinking. Is there some other way you can think to react?

Can you distract or redirect the child? Can you get her busy doing something she likes to do? Can you take time to do something with him? How can you build more opportunity & affection into your relationships & remove some of the control & correction?

Even as children get older it's good to redirect them toward acceptable choices. i.e., I might not feel good about my early-teen daughter going to a high school dance, but we can consider having a party for her & her friends at our house. We can look for an opportunity that we both feel good about.

There are other tools that can help parents have appropriate control in their relationships with their children. If you don't seem to be able to control your children, you may want to read Extension Circular HE-687 in this series, "Something Better Than Punishment."

Go back to the list you made at the beginning of this publication. Notice whether the things you talked about with your children showed control & correction or opportunity & affection. Think about how you can make your relationship with each child more positive.

As you change your relationships with your children, be patient with yourself. It takes time to make changes. Keep working at it. When you make a mistake, learn from it. Discover better ways to have a healthy, joyous, positive relationship with your children.

A positive look at feeling powerless & depressed

A lot of shys mention that they’re depressed. That saddens me. I think something can be done about it. Depression may be caused by trying to achieve certain things over & over with no success & thinking nothing will ever change. It may be caused by trying to get others to change something so that you’ll feel better, but it doesn’t happen. It may be caused by unexpressed anger or resentment, caused by a lack of communication skills & lack of self-confidence in learning & applying the skills. I think it means in broad terms that you feel you're powerless.

I can’t believe how so many people are depressed. I see many clients daily at my workplace that are diagnosed with depression & taking medication for it. There may be many other causes for depression that I’m not aware of, but I’d like to tell you how I pulled myself out of mine after a short time. What I learned was so profound that it really got my attention.

A friend sat me down one day & told me honestly that she thought I was depressed. She said I seemed negative & critical & not my normal happy, positive, enthusiastic self. She shared with me that she herself had felt depressed & had started taking medication & now she felt better. She also referred to a mutual friend of ours with the same situation.

I personally don’t believe that me taking medication for depression would help me. That would really make me feel powerless. I'd feel that there was nothing I could do & I'd get caught up in the national belief that drugs were the answer. I decided I'd find out what was really going on with me & change it.

I thought back to when I was excited about life & asked myself what I did different then to make me feel good. I decided it was my thoughts. I know thoughts can be changed. I know I have the power to do that. I had just slipped back into my old bad thinking habits from years of being shy & feeling powerless. Some recent negative experiences had triggered that.

I thought of people that did things that bothered me. I had tried to change them & they just wouldn’t! I thought, maybe they just can’t. Not that they wouldn’t, but simply that they couldn’t. I was able to conclude that, because I saw things in myself that I wanted to change & was very motivated to do, but I couldn’t. (I either wasn’t ready yet or didn’t know how to.)

If that was true for me, maybe it was true for others. That allowed me to stop feeling so powerless. I could see that it wasn’t within my power to change them & it never was. I'd erroneously thought I somehow had that power & I just wasn’t using it the right way.

I never thought I could control the weather, so I didn’t feel powerless over that. I accepted the weather as it was. I didn’t like it necessarily, but I accepted it. You only feel powerless over something you think you “should” have power over, even if it really isn't within your control.

When I accepted that I had no power over anyone, it set me free! I could enjoy & feel empathy for people just as they were. After all, I was like I was & I had a hard time changing me, even though I had ALL the power to do that.

When I decided that I could work on myself & focus only on that, it gave me an incredible exhilaration! When you decide that all of the stuff around you is not about you & you can’t control it anyway, you can focus on yourself. What do you want to change about yourself?

Do you want to overcome your shyness? What does that mean? Do you want to know what to say? What would it take for you to know what to say? Do you want to feel more confident?

What would it take to feel more confident? Can you picture yourself being confident? What would be different? How you feel? How you think? How you dress? Your body? The words you use? Entering conversations? Starting conversations? Saying no? Asking for what you want? Setting boundaries? Influencing people? Influencing YOURSELF?

Notice what makes you feel better. Isn’t it always what you're thinking? If you think someone else is making you feel better, you're wrong. If you feel better around that person, it’s because you're thinking about what they're saying. THAT’S what makes you feel better. It’s not them. It’s actually YOUR thoughts about what they’re saying OR their thoughts become YOURS.

YOU HAVE THE POWER TO think WHATEVER YOU CHOOSE.

CHOOSE YOUR THOUGHTS. YOU FEEL WHATEVER YOU'RE thinking ABOUT.

YOUR FEELINGS ARE YOUR LIFE. YOUR LIFE ISN'T YOUR BODY, IT'S YOUR THOUGHTS.

IF A THOUGHT IS MAKING YOU FEEL DEPRESSED, think A DIFFERENT THOUGHT. The depressing thing you’re thinking about isn’t actually happening right now. You’re just thinking about how or when it might happen & experiencing it in advance in your mind. That makes you FEEL a certain way. The positive thing you’re thinking isn’t really happening right now either, but it FEELS BETTER to think positive than negative. If you feel better you're not depressed!

BE aware OF WHAT YOU'RE THINKING. You'll notice physical changes when you think depressing thoughts. You'll notice physical changes when you think positive thoughts.

NOTICE WHAT SIGNALS YOUR BODY IS GIVING YOU. ARE THEY feel good OR FEEL BAD SIGNALS? A sinking or rising feeling? Heartache (literally an aching in the heart area) or a warm feeling? Hopeless or hopeful? Head up or head down? Full or shallow breathing?

Shoulders drooping or shoulders back? Pain or tenseness in your abdomen or a relaxed feeling there? Become aware of your body & it'll help you notice your negative thoughts when they start so you can stop them in time to prevent a depressed day. Negative thoughts are habitual. You can change negative thought habits just like you can quit smoking.

Thinking is so automatic that we’re hardly aware of it. We're thinking every second of the day. It’s our brain’s job to assess situations constantly, to help us determine if we're safe or need to take action to protect ourselves. It’s our job to notice whether or not there’s a real imminent threat. We may have been threatened or thought we were threatened at some point in our lives. That’s how our brain started to become aware of things we should watch out for. We're safe for the most part as adults.

When we developed those awarenesses, the situation was probably much different than it is now. Our brains developed heightened awarenesses to certain situations to help warn us of impending danger.

For example, if your caregiver was angry with you as a child, you felt unsafe. You may have felt they were angry & judged you because you did something wrong even if it was accidental. You may have felt they withdrew their love & approval.

If they didn’t love & approve of you, they might go away & you couldn’t survive on your own. That’s why you felt unsafe. Back then, you had no control over anything. You didn’t know they weren’t really going to go away. (hopefully)

If someone gets angry with you now, your survival isn’t threatened, (hopefully) but it triggers the brain to think it’s a similar situation. The heightened awareness to anger & judgment starts us thinking we must protect ourselves. We do it even if we think they MIGHT judge us.

We start trying to predict how people will act so we can protect ourselves should something really happen. We may even project imaginary thoughts onto people, imagining they're thinking bad thoughts about us, so we’d better watch out. This is all extremely negative.

Give yourself permission to think the negative thoughts LATER. That'll clear the path to thinking positive thoughts now. You may not be able to think positive thoughts now because some part of you feels it must “figure out a way” by rehashing the negative over & over until it reaches an answer so you'll feel protected.

It’s like a cycle with no end. When you tell your mind that you’ll come back to it later, it relaxes a little, thinking that it'll be “figured out” later, and then it can protect you. This is your body’s amazing capacity for survival.

You'll finally be able to let the positive thoughts in. Your mind is just concerned that you figure out solutions to problems sooner or later. It doesn’t want you to forget this important information.

What was a thought you had while reading this article that made you feel better? Go back to it right now. Find a sentence on the page that makes you feel good. Go read it now.

Did you feel something inside that made you feel lighter, more hopeful, perkier? Don’t just read this. Really do it. If you want something to change, you have to do different things. If you’ve never actually done an exercise in a book, how will you know if something can be different?

People who write those exercises have actually done them & had results. That’s how they know how to write them, just like I know how to write this. I actually discovered this thinking thing myself. It made all the difference in the world.

You don’t have to “reinvent the wheel” so to speak. Use this example to help you. It took me years to discover all of this information. Apply it to yourself now so that you can be years ahead in your awarenesses. Your awarenesses can guide you to more positive thoughts. More positive thoughts create a more positive life.

Remember, your life isn’t your body, it’s your thoughts.

Positive Mental Focus - Just How Important Is It? - By Curtis G. Schmitt

I heard something the other day that I just can't let go of. It's an idea that's stunning, yet so obvious, I can't believe I haven't come across it sooner...

Our thoughts are CURRENCY.

Let that sink in for a moment.

In other words, everything you think about you BUY.

We've all heard that what we focus on determines the results we get in life. That makes sense. If you want something badly enough & you focus all your energy on getting it, you'll very likely achieve it. Whereas if you don't focus on getting it, you won't.

But the currency metaphor takes this idea a bit further. It suggests that we even get the things we DON'T want if we think about them long enough.

So if you constantly think, "I don't want to be poor. I hate not having any money. I don't earn enough to buy the things I want. My job sucks."- if you SPEND most of your thoughts on the experience of being poor, that's what you get.

We all know someone who constantly complains about how unlucky they are, how nothing ever goes right for them. And when you look closely at their life, what do you notice? They're right. They DO seem to have worse luck than the average person.

How can this be true?

Well, let's look at the salesperson who's so worried about not making the sale that's all he can focus on. In his sales presentation, do you think he's relaxed or tense? Do you think he's more concerned with solving his prospect's problem or selling his product? Do you think he'll respond empathetically or defensively to his prospect's objections?

Clearly, a tense & defensive salesperson who's aggressively pushing his product isn't going to have the greatest chance of making the sale.

So, if thoughts are currency & you buy whatever you think about, the importance of a positive mental focus becomes obvious. Imagine each week when you got your paycheck you went out & bought everything you didn't want. That's ridiculous, right? So, be as frugal with your thoughts as you are with your cash.

Here's how you do it:

1. Increase your awareness of when & how often your thoughts go negative. Get in the habit of asking yourself, "What am I focusing on right now? Is it positive or negative?"

2. If your focus is negative, replace it with its positive opposite. Instead of dwelling on the things that are missing in your life, focus on what you already have & what's possible in the future. Get in the habit of asking yourself, "What do I love about my life?"

3. Defend yourself fiercely against outside toxic negative influences. Stay away from complainers & blamers. Limit your exposure to the sensationalized & negative media. Get in the habit of asking yourself, "What's influencing my mental focus right now & is it positive or negative?"

4. Surround yourself with positive influences (or simply notice what's already around you). Associate frequently with people who lift your spirits & inspire you. Decorate your home & work space with pictures & colors that make you feel good. Play upbeat music that gives you energy. Get in the habit of asking yourself, "What can I do or focus on that will increase the quality of this experience?"

In his classic book Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill wrote, "You have ABSOLUTE control over but one thing & that's your thoughts. If you fail to control your own mind, you may be sure you'll control nothing else."

With a consistent positive mental focus, you'll cultivate fertile ground in which success & fulfillment will take root & grow. With a negative focus, your life becomes polluted & toxic, killing off your dreams before they even have a chance.

Copyright 2006 Curtis G. Schmitt

Replacing Negative "What Ifs" with Positive Ones - By Bryon Thompson

We call them “what ifs”. Those nagging little fears that pop into our minds when we’re trying to accomplish something. But where do our “what ifs” come from?

Some may have been conjured up by others & some created all by ourselves but any way you slice it – we are the ones who ultimately choose them as our own. We simply have accepted them as real threats, fears or concerns whether they be true are or not.

Many people live unconsciously under the impression that “what ifs” are a separate entity, independent from us and that we should take them all seriously. The fact is they are not always valid and true, let alone worthy of any sort of long-term loyalty. What's worse is that most of these "what ifs" are automatically negative, leaving us stuck, immobilized and unable to take action.

The good news is we can become more and more aware of this and put a fun, positive spin on these "what ifs". Sort of play with them a bit. After all, positive expectations are just as valid, if not more so, than negative expectations so why not consider replacing the negative ones with positive. Let's look at some automatic negative responses to everyday situations:

"What if I get in an accident?"
"What if they laugh at me?"
"What if the money doesn't come in?"
"What if I make a mistake?"
"What if I can't make the deadline?"
"What if he/she thinks I'm stupid?"
"What if they judge me?"
"What if they stare at me?"
"What if I don't get the respect I deserve?"
"What if I face financial ruin?"

First, having a good laugh at how ridiculous the negative ones can sound will help to put them in perspective. Second, it's always a good idea to question the origin of a "what if" as it may be nothing but an age old negative thought habit, or something that someone suggested many years ago that still works like a “fear trigger” today.

Next let's consider giving them a positive twist. For instance:

"What if I NEVER get in an accident?"
"What if they DON'T laugh at me?"
"What if the money ALWAYS comes when I need it?"
"What if I DON'T make a mistake?"
"What if I DO make the deadline?"
"What if he/she DOESN'T think I'm stupid?"
"What if they DON'T judge me?"
"What if they DON'T stare at me?"
"What if I ALWAYS get the respect I deserve?"
"What if I NEVER face financial ruin?"

How would you feel if the positive scenario happened instead of the negative? How would you handle that? It’s important to ask, as well as answer these questions because they are valid in the sense that positive outcomes are always a possibility, and if they are possible then it makes sense to consider them, right? The next time you're about to take action and some negative "what if" pops up and stops you in your tracks just recognize that it's just as valid to expect a positive outcome. So why not try it? It takes practice but little by little, through increased awareness you’ll eventually see a positive tendency overriding the negative and you'll be on track to expecting, and thus experiencing more positive results.

Does all of this mean you can totally eliminate negative outcomes by simply thinking of, and expecting positive outcomes? Of course it doesn’t but it does mean that by expecting positive outcomes more frequently and taking appropriate actions towards those expectations will greatly increase your odds of having more and more positive outcomes. A poignant quote from Orison S. Marden (1850-1924), founder of Success Magazine, sums this up well:

“Most successful men I have known had the habit of expecting things to turn out right. No matter how black or discouraging the outlook, they held tenaciously to their faith in the final outcome. This habit of holding an expectant attitude in some mysterious way unknown to us attracts the thing we long for, just as though our own were always seeking us when we were seeking it.”

Expect the best and forget the rest.

Negative vs positive. The ever-existing battle in your mind. - By Lynne Dean

WE ARE ALL THINKING ALL OF THE TIME. Can you believe that our thoughts never leave us. Wow! Silly thoughts, hungry thoughts, angry thoughts, melancholy thoughts, happy thoughts; that’s a bunch of emotions that has a significant impact on our lives. Physically, emotionally, it’s all there.

Every thought is connected to our body to create a response. Example: imagine a hot summer day. There is absolutely no breeze. You are sitting on a rock in the middle of your yard. Smell the earth, the heat. HEAR the crickets doing their thing. The sun is hot on your body. In your hand, you have an ice cold drink. You are thirsty. Put the glass to your lips. Drink. AHHHHHH. Wasn’t that nice? Were you there with me?

Thoughts influence our emotions. Try this other exercise. Think of something that makes you happy. Anything. Now think of something that you hate doing and that makes you feel miserable. Okay. Back to something that makes you smile. See. Thoughts rule our emotions instantly. Change your thoughts to happy thoughts and your emotions will change.

Well then, where do negative thoughts come into play? If you start telling yourself several times a day that you are an idiot, incompetent person what do you think you will act like? YOU WILL ACT AND FEEL LIKE an idiotic, incompetent person. It’s powerful stuff.

Positive thinking produce positive results likewise negative thoughts will have a negative impact on your life.

WHICH one do you choose?

Lynne D.
Team of Motivational Central
www.motivationalcentral.com

A mind stretched to a new idea, never goes back to its original dimensions.
– Oliver Wendell Holmes

Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or lose.
– Lyndon B. Johnson

Think Positive - Even a Heart Attack Can Be a Good Thing - By Karen Wheeler Hall

We all experience moments in life when things don’t go our way. Frustration, anger or fear often result. But sometimes things that initially seem disappointing or even disastrous actually turn out to be our lucky break. Steven List discovered that his heart attack at age 44 led to a rewarding new career, improved relationships, and a new purpose in life.

In 1996 Steven List was a smart, successful, happily married father of four. After interrupting his regular karate workout due to chest pains, Steven was rushed to the hospital, diagnosed with a 100% blockage of a major coronary artery, and given an emergency angioplasty. Steven was incredibly lucky in that the heart attack had no lasting physical effect on him, although he could very easily have died that night. While the heart attack may not have caused any permanent physical damage, it did create other lasting changes in its “victim.” According to Steven, the incident served as a powerful catalyst for the changes that had been brewing inside of him for several years.

In his younger days, Steven was intelligent but cocky. He was not sensitive or caring, and he did not really care whether people liked him because he felt he was smarter and better than they were. When Steven was in his 20’s he experienced his first revelation regarding his arrogance and his impatience whenever he had to teach others. A co-worker explained to Steven that he left other people behind when he made intuitive leaps from “A” to “H,” because the others needed to understand steps “B” through “G” as well. He tried for several years to overcome this tendency, but it was only after he began studying and teaching martial arts that he finally developed the patience to explain a concept and stick with it until the student understood and could demonstrate the lesson being taught. Over the next few years, the guy who didn’t have the patience to teach became a very popular instructor!

One day, a chance remark by his wife made Steven realize that he had changed – that he liked being a nice guy, he liked having people like him, and that it was alright to want people to like him. This was the beginning of a major change in Steven, as slowly but surely his defensive wall of arrogance and indifference began to crumble. But it took a full-fledged heart attack to really set things into motion.

Shortly before Steven’s heart attack, he learned that his stepmother had been diagnosed with ovarian cancer. She was a loving and nurturing woman whom Steven thought of as a “second mother.” He took the opportunity to write her a heartfelt letter thanking her for her kindness to Steven and his brother when they were growing up. A short while later, Steven learned his stepmother had died. He experienced a totally unexpected surge of emotion at the news, and just two or three weeks later he was hit with the heart attack.

After the heart attack, Steven’s core philosophy became “treat every person and every day as if it might be your last.” He became heavily involved with the American Heart Association Heart Walk, serving as one of the organizers and, for many years, the top fundraiser.

Steven had a long history of public speaking, mainly technical presentations to the computer industry, but he now felt compelled to share with others the lessons he had learned. He was no longer content to simply inform, he now felt passionate about changing people’s lives. And so he launched a new public speaking career, with his most popular talks focusing on lessons he learned as a result of the heart attack.

One of his signature talks is “Steven’s Three Commandments,” which are: 1) Don’t wait until tomorrow to say I love you, 2) Don’t wait until tomorrow to say I’m sorry, and 3) Don’t wait until tomorrow to say thank you. Steven believes that these three simple principles can make a profound difference in our own lives and the lives of everyone around us. He lives these three principles in his own life, to the best of his ability, and his relationships with his family and friends have all improved as a result.

Steven could have let his heart attack bring him down. But instead he used it as a stepping stone for the next chapter in his life. His inspiring story reminds us that setbacks can actually be a springboard for future success and positive life changes. If we choose to keep a positive attitude in all situations, we will see for ourselves how often things that appear to be bad actually turn out to be good!

© Karen Wheeler Hall – All Rights Reserved

Read the full story of how Steven survived a heart attack and used the experience to better his life and the lives of others in Illumination - Inspiring Stories About Finding the Silver Lining by Karen Wheeler Hall (PublishAmerica, 2005, ISBN 1-4137-6322-7). Available from http://www.KarenWheelerHall.com/, online bookstores, and through major bookstores nationwide.

Staying Positive in a Negative World - By Success Skills Coach Jim Rohrbach

You're used to "the news" by now in the last few years: "This is a tough environment."

"Unemployment continues to rise."

"People are working harder than ever with less to show for it."

By regularly listening to the news you may start to question whether the sky is actually falling. (Don't worry -- it isn't.)

High achievers know it's critical to maintain a positive mental outlook, no matter what's going on around them. So how do you develop & maintain this attitude? Here are some ideas I use personally to stay positive in a negative world:

1. Mission Statement The starting point of all high achievement is a clear sense of purpose. So your Mission
Statement is like "your personal pledge of allegiance" - it describes who you are & what you're all about.

The 1st thing I do with all of my clients is to have them develop a Mission Statement, then have them commit it to memory & recite it every morning. Why? Napoleon Hill, in his classic book Think & Grow Rich, stated, "Any idea, plan or purpose may be placed in the mind thru repetition of thought."

2. Affirmations To become a "legend in your own time," you must first be a legend in your own mind.

One way to do this is to use Affirmations: repetition of positive statements in the present tense as if they're already a fact.

A simple example is to affirm, "I am a top achiever!"

Many people are reluctant to engage in using affirmations, perhaps in part because they have seen Stuart Smalley doing "Daily Affirmations" on the TV show Saturday Night Live - a hilarious parody done by comedian Al Franken which made using affirmations appear moronic.

Yet Brian Tracy, a world leader in personal development training, says that he personally uses affirmations on a daily basis. So who are you gonna believe on this matter - Franken (no longer on the air) or Tracy?

3. Goals review There's a famous 20-year study of Harvard graduates that demonstrated the power of goal setting:

• researchers found that only 3% of a graduating class had clearly written goals. 20 years later they documented that this group of goal-setters had accumulated more wealth than the other 97% combined.

This isn't lost on high achievers, who commit clear goals to writing & review them regularly.

4. Visualization One of the important skills taught to professional athletes is mentally picturing specific successful outcomes (i.e. the perfect golf swing) in a meditative state. So if this skill is being taught to millionaire athletes, why would it be any different for you?

Visualize closing a big deal, seeing your name at the top of the production chart, being congratulated by the boss, etc.

5. Positive mental input Take on the challenge of a "media fast" for a week - shut off the TV, ignore the newspaper,  avoid commercial radio, etc.

Most media in designed to "addict" you to their programming without benefit to you. As an example, suppose you listened to talk radio in the morning - anybody from Rush Limbaugh to Howard
Stern. Question:

• How much money has listening to them put in YOUR pocket? (Answer: NONE!)

So I suggest you replace this negative input with reading success books, listening to motivational audio programs from Nightingale-Conant Corporation & attending skill-building seminars. This will have a positive effect on your attitude & your bottom line.

6. Physical exercise High achievers understand the importance of staying in shape. Just like professional athletes, the ones who make it to the top know they must keep themselves fit.

And a regular workout regimen has a multitude of benefits - it reduces stress, clears the mind, builds endurance & provides that "look of a winner" for attracting & keeping business. It makes no difference what form of exercise you choose, just as long as you enjoy it enough to do it 4 - 5 times a week.

7. Positive support group Unlike magnets, likes attract. So if you want to be a high achiever, start hanging out with them, not with the also-ran characters that hang around the water cooler - you'll be guilty by association.

One assignment I give my clients is to identify successful people in their company, then invite them to lunch to find out what they're doing. Most high achievers are flattered by invitations to share their success stories.

One final word - if becoming a top producer was EASY, everyone would do it - & then it would be worth the equivalent of flippin' burgers at your local fast food joint.

The people who use the ideas I've described here KNOW how to stay positive in a negative world ... & they're the ones you'll see at the top.

Success Skills Coach Jim Rohrbach, "The Personal Fitness Trainer for Your Business," coaches business owners, entrepreneurs and sales professionals on growing their clientele. He has helped hundreds of individuals to achieve their goals since he developed his first coaching program in 1982. You can visit Jim on the web at www.SuccessSkills.com.   7/03

You Gotta Be Positive! - By Sonya C. Triggs

Remember Des’ree? She had a great song out in 1994, entitled ‘You Gotta Be’. It was one of the most uplifting, encouraging & energizing songs I’d ever heard.

Don’t’ believe me? Well, here is the chorus: “You Gotta Be Bad, You Gotta Be Bold, You Gotta Be Wiser. You Gotta Be Hard, You Gotta Be Tough, You Gotta Be Stronger. You Gotta Be Cool, You Gotta Be Calm, You Gotta Stay Together. All I Know, All I Know, Love Will Save the Day.”

Now, repeat that to yourself 10 times (or better yet, buy the CD) & tell me how you feel. Bet you start feeling better. Bet you want to start dancing around the room (especially if you're listening to the CD!).

Des’ree’s song is a great example of the power of positive affirmation. What is positive affirmation? It's a conscious effort to feed your psyche positive, uplifting, or inspiring messages, which will lead to having a positive, uplifting or inspiring life.

Sounds good doesn’t, it? It’s simple to practice & the benefits are lasting. After all, there are few things stronger or more important than the human psyche. Your psyche determines how much you enjoy your life, how good you feel, how pleasant you are to other people, your goal-setting abilities, your attitude & pretty much everything about your temperament, your moods & your behavior.

Your psyche is who you are. And wouldn’t you like that ‘who’ to be a better person?

Here are some great positive affirmations you can use in your every day life:

1. I am happy with my life!

2. I am grateful for my family & friends!

3. I am grateful to have people who love & care about me!

4. I accept myself the way I am!

5. I accept other people the way they are!

6. No matter what's going on, it’s only temporary!

7. I can handle anything that life throws at me!

8. I am always striving to do better!

9. I will learn from my mistakes!

10. Life is a gift & I will enjoy it!

These are just a few examples, but feel free to come up with your own & change them depending on your situation. Start feeling better about yourself, your life & your circumstances today!

Positive Thinking, Revisited! - By Tanmay N. Vora

My wife recently joined public speaking classes. So we both decided to express our ideas on any topic for at least 30 minutes each day. We started off with a small discussion on positive attitude.

Having read about powers of positive thinking over all these years, it wasn't difficult for either one of us to gather ideas. What was important was to express them.

I gave her the classic example of two men watching a glass half filled, the pessimist one saying "The glass is half empty" & the optimist one saying "Wow, The glass is half full".

Our conversation progressed. I explained to her that positive thinking is all about seeing the good element in any situation, even if the situation is bad. Under any circumstances, we always have a choice to select between the positive & negative thinking.

Everybody makes mistakes & everybody falls. You can either stay in the same state in despair, or learn from those mistakes & move on.

Positive thinking is about seeing the silver lining behind the every dark & gloomy cloud. H Jackson Brown Jr once wrote: "Your mind can only hold one thought at a time, make it positive & constructive one." Simple but true words. We went on.

Being more talkative of the two, I told her about one of my experiences when I was on my way to lunch on a hot summer afternoon. The temperature outside was almost 44 degrees Celsius.

Glare of very bright sunlight was teasing my eyes. I had two pair of glasses in my bag. I quickly pulled out the spectacles with plain glasses. My eyes weren't relieved, instead the glare increased. I put off the plain glasses & pulled out the spectacles with green shaded glasses.

The moment I put them on, my eyes felt cool. Everything I looked turned green. Green glasses gave me a soothing experience, although the situation externally was unchanged. I went on to compare the white glasses to negative attitude, which doesn't improve the situation, but worsens it instead. And a positive thinking is to our mind what green glasses were to my eyes. It changes the way we think & improves our reaction to any situation.

Now it was her turn. So I asked her about any instance in her life when positive thinking helped her. Thinking for a while, she recollected the time when she scored miserably in the first year of her Masters in English Literature. She was in pain, not being able to fulfill everybody's expectations. But, she chose to think. positively.

She told herself: "Unlike others, who miserably fail in the final year, I still have a one full year. I still have a chance to prove myself". She made up her mind & started studying very seriously & experienced a positive outcome.

It's all in the way you think. If you think you're miserable, you're bound to be miserable & nobody else can help you out of the situation, except you.

Soon, I realized that it was the time to sleep. We ended our conversation with a resolution that we'll always choose to think positive. We slept well that night!

Positive Affirmations - By Gene Simmons

Never used ‘em. Not likely to start now.

OK, so I just lied a little bit. (Is that anything like being a little bit pregnant?) I really didn’t mean to. (Hmmm, that comment could be applicable to the pregnant thing too but actually I was referring to my lying.)

I guess the one positive affirmation that I commonly use is not so much a phrase that I repeat or think about periodically throughout the day – it’s more like an answer to a question. The question? “How ya doin’?”

My answer will likely be “Super! And you?” Once in a while it may slip to “Really good!” & occasionally it'll pop up to “Fantastic!” but most of the time I cruise thru the day at a “super” level. Do I mean it? Well, of course I do. I wouldn’t lie about something like that. And no, I wasn’t always “super” – but many years ago I started saying it anyway because I had heard that if you start thinking more positively your life will be better. So I tried it & it worked – well, sort of.

Once I figured out – with help naturally – that I really had to do something to make some changes in my life so that it would be “super” – it became “super”. I’m still doing things & making changes so that I can be “double super”. I think that probably equates to somewhere close to “fantastic”.

So I guess when you get right down to it, I do use a positive affirmation – along with positively oriented actions to do those things I want to do. But that’s it. That’s the only positive affirmation I use!

OK, except for maybe another exception that I just thought of. When I get out of bed in the morning & am having my first cup of coffee, I do think about what a great day it is (yes, no matter what the weather is or what I need to do that day) & how great it is to be alive & to be able to experience just living.

I think about that for awhile & then I chat with my spiritual director & say “thanks” for allowing me to be me & permitting me to have the opportunity to learn & enjoy this great creation. Then I usually have another cup of coffee & think about this a little more as I make plans for doing those things I believe I should do during the day. But that’s it. That’s the only other positive affirmation I use!

Well, maybe except for the times that I experience something really neat during the day. Like meeting someone new – or just getting to know an old friend a little better. Or like seeing a situation develop & realizing that the odds of it happening just coincidentally would be totally astronomical. Or like noticing the strange little plant that popped up just outside of the flower bed has really cool leaf markings.

Or like feeling the morning dew on my bare feet as I walk across the front lawn. Or – well, you get the idea. But since I’m “fessing up” here, I know I have a pile of good, positive thoughts at these times & I suppose you could say these would be a type of positive affirmation. But that’s it. Those are the only other positive affirmations I use!

Well, maybe except for when I’m getting ready for bed & I take a few minutes to think back on my day & all the really good things I’ve seen & experienced & I take just a minute to thank my master teacher for giving me the opportunity to enjoy another day. I guess you could consider that to be a type of positive affirmation.

But that’s it. That’s the only other positive affirmation I use! I just don’t believe in ‘em…

Why Positive Thinking Doesn't Work! - By Julie Plenty

There was someone I used to work with who, well aware of their tendency to look at the negative side of things, used to constantly tell themselves to "think more positively".

This was said with such a feeling of desperation that I just knew that not only would they NOT think positively, they'd probably go even further into negative thinking. The mere fact that they kept pushing themselves to "think positively" was a sign that this would ultimately be counterproductive.

So many of us have interpreted the desire to be positive thinkers in a very narrow & ultimately ineffective way. The push to be positive often results in ignoring our true feelings. Instead of recognizing that we don't always feel positive & learning how to convert & turn round our feelings, it so often ends up with us denying them altogether.

The Law of Attraction, as defined by Abraham Hicks states that "you attract to yourself what you give your attention & energy to, whether wanted or unwanted".

Positive Mental Attitude - By A.M.Sall

Look at this glass on the table in front of you. Is it half-full or is it half-empty?

Now, do you realize that it's entirely for you to decide what the answer to this question is going to be.

The choice is yours.

So, the very same reality can be seen in totally opposite ways: in a positive way & in a negative way.

And there is always a positive side to any thing, any situation, any event, any person.

Look at the world in a different way. Try to find out that positive side. At first, you might literally have to dig it out, but after some time, it automatically appears to you. In fact, you eventually only see the good side.

Everything is beautiful, "everybody's beautiful, in their own way", as the song goes.

So we invite you to try our 3-step positive mental attitude formula.