Many years ago, I listened to a seminar given by Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, author of the “Power of Positive Thinking”. He shared a story about a man that stood up to make a comment at the end of his seminar.
The man said to Dr. Peale, “All this positive thinking stuff may work for some people, but you have no idea what my problems are.” The man continued, “My problems are overwhelming, and you don’t realize how tough I have it. I don’t have just one problem. I have countless problems.”
Dr. Peale let the man finish venting and then he asked the man if he would like to go with him to visit a place with a population of over twenty thousand people, where not one single person had a problem.
The man got very excited and said, “I would like to go there.” Dr. Peale informed the man that it was just a thirty-minute drive to the Woodlawn Cemetery, and he would be happy to take him there after the seminar was over.
BOOM!
What a powerful lesson.
The rewards in life are not given for identifying the problems. They are given for finding the solutions.
Be solution oriented! The most powerful ally in overcoming your problems is changing your focus. When you focus on your problems, they tend to get bigger and they seem to multiply.
Oprah said it best… “Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never have enough.”
ACTION STEPS
- Make a written list of all of those things you have in your life for which you should be grateful.
- Focus on the good that is already present.
- Focus on the abundance that you have in your life. That’s right, the abundance.
- Look for it. You will find it! The fact that you are sitting there reading this is a starting point for those of you who say you have nothing to be grateful for:
- You have the gift of vision
- You can read
- You have a computer
- You have manual dexterity
- Someone cares about you
- You have a roof overhead
- You are breathing
- This is just a small example of how we take things for granted.
- I once had a mentor say to me, “If you don’t believe every day is a gift, try missing one.”
- Be Solution Oriented!
- Change your focus… Change your Life!
Remember… Every day is a gift, and the quality of your life is your gift to yourself.