This is a continuation of The Power P's of Enduring Success - Patience
and
The Second Power P of Enduring Success - Persistence
Positivity
The difference between people who live their dreams and people who only wish they did, isn't that the former had it any easier, it's that they managed to hold on longer through the challenging times.One of the key ingredients necessary to hold on longer than the masses is the ability to consistantly maintain a positive mental attitude. Inevitably, something will happen to piss you off or frustrate you. We're not perfect. It happens to me. Bob Proctor has mentioned mutliple times it happens to him. Anthony Robbins too. But I do not dwell in negativity long. I spot negative thinking early on and immediately set my mind back to focusing on the positives.
A lot of people like to be 'realists' but really that's just another word for 'pessimist'. The only difference is realists are looking at what is and using that to determine what will be. Actually, that's not a difference at all, except they like to think it's different because they are not painting it to be worse than what the current reality is.
But the Law of Attraction teaches us that whatever you focus on, you attract into your life. If you are focused on what is, you are attracting more of the same. If you are focused on what you want, you are attracting that.
In more concrete terms, if you look at the current results and use that as your guide then you automatically limit what you can accomplish. You cannot envision achieving higher heights than what you're seeing. Since you cannot envision it, you will not strive continuously to accomplish it and therefore will inevitable prove yourself right. Effectively you are attracting more of the same into your life.
I mentioned my friend and web guru before and this was exactly where he was at when he e-mailed me. He was feeling like he had plateaued. That he just couldn't achieve more than what he had achieved before. That was his current reality. He was being realistic. And if he stayed in that mindset, he'd prove himself right.
"Whether you believe you can, or you can't; you are right." Henry Ford
Fortunately my friend is like me and does not allow those thoughts to linger very long. After a few hours he was back to his old indomitable self. He is one person who continually inspires me as he always shoots for more than he can chew, and often gets it. I don't doubt he'll be surprising me by scoring some position I would never have thought he was capable of getting, again, sometime soon.
By focusing your mind on what is good about any situation and on the results you want, you start to see how the current reality is not taking you away from your goals but conversely, how they are bring you closer. To begin with, you'll be grateful for the lessons learned, and any little good you gain from the situation. Gratitude brings you into alignment with God/Source. Being resentful about life, pulls you away from your connection to your higher power. Being grateful and positive also allows you to see and be prepared for oppurtunities that you would miss if you are limiting your mindset to only the realistic results.
Once my friend regained his positive mental attitude, he immediately made some calls, and managed to salvage a contract opportunity he was written off as dead. If he had allowed himself to have remained in his former state he'd have never made those calls, as he'd still be bitching about how unfair life was instead.
This poem sums it up beautifully.
MY WAGE
By Jessie B. Rittenhouse
I bargained with Life for a penny,
And Life would pay no more,
However I begged at evening
When I counted my scanty store;
For Life is a just employer,
He gives you what you ask,
But once you have set the wages,
Why, you must bear the task.
I worked for a menial's hire,
Only to learn, dismayed,
That any wage I had asked of Life,
Life would have paid.
People who look at the present results and allow that to shape their expectations of life are asking for a penny. Why else would you ask for a penny? Only because based on your previous experiences, you feel that's what you are worth and capable of. You ask for a penny because you think it's a just wage for your services, even while you rail at the injustice of how you're suffering through life while others seem to be better off.
If you develop and maintain a positive mental attitude you expect and demand more from life. Why can't you have more? You're as good as anyone else in life. God made us all equally, if differently. And the wage you ask for, consistantly, is the wage you'll earn.
"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you." Matthew 7:7
Being positive is a choice, an attitude and a habit. If you are not a positive person by nature you need to habitualize the behavour until you are. A positive mental attitude will allow you to continue carrying on long after a 'realistic' person would have thrown in the towel.