Journey to Possible

Everyday I choose to think positive thoughts. I am a positive person, but that isn't because of my DNA. I'm a positive person because my family modeled how to always see the possibility in a situation. 

My positivity has been on a continuum throughout my life. For part of my twenties it wasn't always cool to be positive. I let pressures in society and among my peer group make complaining a part of something that I did. I allowed myself to create drama where really there wasn't any. I blamed others and made excuses for things in my life that weren't where I wanted them to be. I got caught up in the culture of busy and helped to perpetuate it. 

A few years ago I started a new experiment. What if I just let go of that kind of thinking? What if instead of thinking about all the bad parts of a situation I decided to make the good parts bigger? That included even how I looked at my day. I went from thinking about all of the things that made my day busy and overwhelming and dramatic to trying to focus on what made my day good. The time that I had to connect with a colleague and laugh. The opportunity to work on something that I really cared about. 

I can't say exactly when, but overtime as I practiced this my possible and positive world got a lot bigger.  I finally found how to practice joyful efforts everyday. I started to tell myself a different story. This blog post from Seth Godin reminded me of this today. It brought me back to the choices I make everyday to set my mindset and the immense power that has on how I show up in the world and the impact I can have.