Hmm, the Impossible.
In your opinion, what is the Impossible?
Are you thinking of that posh mansion you would like to live in? Or a financially-free lifestyle of travelling around the world? Or that spiffy Lamborghini?
I’m sure there must be people around who have achieved their equivalent of the Impossible. How did they do it? For instance, were people just lucky to become Wall Street millionaires? Were other people also just lucky to be able to be included as world-tour opening acts for famous pop artistes?
No, luck has nothing – almost nothing – to do with it. What matters is one secret to them achieving the Impossible.
And the best thing is that each and every single of us possess this secret – positive thinking.
You may think, “Oh, positive thinking? That is just crap, how can that help me achieve the Impossible?”
Famous American motivational speaker Zig Ziglar (November 6, 1926 – November 28, 2012) had this to say:
“Positive thinking will let you do everything better than negative thinking will.”
But this secret to achieving the Impossible does not just do that. There are other benefits to what positive thinking can bring about:
- Enhanced psychological health.
- Increased immunity.
- Increased life span.
- Reduced depression probability.
- Reduced stress level.
So, you can see that positive thinking is seriously a force to be reckoned with. If you can master positive thinking, you basically seal your success. But how do you make use of positive thinking to achieve the Impossible?
Here is one sure way to achieve positive thinking: Look for the positive in your life.
The positive in life. This refers to things which are generally positive – uplifting, motivating etc. Sounds easy? Well yes…
Here, I share techniques how positive thinking, or rather, looking for the positive in your life, can be promoted in 2 main aspects of daily routine:
- Mind
In order to look for the positive in your life, you have to first start with the mind. By that I mean that you have to be confident. Confident that you can see, feel, and experience wholeheartedly the positive in your life.
With confidence, you can also easily, and effectively, instill positive thinking aspects in your life. By virtue of that, the Impossible swiftly becomes the Possible.
Confidence is defined as a state of being certain that a hypothesis or prediction is accurate or effective. For instance, you can be confident that there is no flaw or mistake in the complex mathematical formula you are proposing or you are confident you won’t suffer from stage-fright at the seminar to be attended by a record-breaking number of participants.
Get to know yourself intimately – Know all your strengths and weaknesses.
When you are aware of all your strengths, you are able to give your best to everything you do in life. In doing so, you harvest many kinds of successes, and you see the positive in life.
- Action
The second is action i.e. the behavior and action of the self.
A common aspect about life is communication and interaction. No man is an island, so people communicate with each other on a daily and constant basis, be it face-to-face, through email or the phone and so on.
When you first get to know someone, convey a firm handshake to signal your pleasure in meeting them, not those lackadaisical and half-hearted ones. Look at the person in the eye, and give your full attention to the person.
Learn to practice active listening. Be genuinely interested in what the person has to say. (If you are unlucky to meet someone who is only interested in boasting about his or her life, try and extricate yourself from the situation as graciously as possible. After all, you do not want to burn any bridges.)
Above all, try NOT to use gadgets the same time of your interaction, unless it is an emergency, because it is just plain rude to give the person a cold shoulder over your cell phone.
By virtue of your warm response towards people, they respond in kind, and this immediately creates a positive environment for interaction. With a significantly warm response between people, it invariably brings on positive thoughts and thinking through further interaction, and that sets the stage for a better societal culture.
Imagine – a culture where people interact with each other in the most optimistic manner, both constructive and friendly. The world is a much better place to live in!
At the end of the day, achieving the Impossible isn’t that difficult. For instance, if you are aiming to be famous in your field of work, look for the positive – Who are the successful people in that field? Know their success story, how they achieved their goals etc. Knowing your own strengths and weaknesses allows you to leverage on them and therefore be more confident. At the same time, take action – Attend conferences and workshops to upgrade your knowledge. As you converse with them, speak with confidence and practice effective speaking and listening.