Wednesday, January 25, 2012

The Power of a Positive Attitude?

We are told that if we have a positive attitude everything will work out in our favour. Because I’m a cynical sort of visionary, I find myself wondering whether positive people can see more clearly into the future. Or if they actually have the power to build what happens next. What do you think? I reckon it is probably a bit of both.

I tend to be the sort of person that things happen to. In other words, I don't feel like I'm the one driving them. One day I wake up and a huge inertia overtakes me and I go forward, mind set until I see it through. I don’t plan, I don’t set goals, I don’t make to-do lists and I respond terribly to being told what to do (other people’s goals, I suppose).

Instead I make must-get-done lists and wait for the inspiration to make them happen. I write down things I hope for, wish for, ideas that have found me in the night or while I am driving quietly in my car. I listen for cues all around me. I watch for the signs.

And when the sign comes, I feel a wave. An undercurrent of energy lifts me up and transports me with seemingly little effort to the place I imagined I would be next. It doesn’t look like ambition or drive. I don't trample along the way. It feels more like floating. It looks like attaching myself to the necessary flow.

The other component that seems to be in place when things start going my way is that I don’t seem to mind if I don’t get what I’m after. In other words, I’m okay either way. I remember the wave that overtook me a couple of weeks after meeting my husband-to-be. I felt so completely out of control of the force that was pushing me towards him that I was scared like you get on a roller coaster just before it leaves its perch into a fall. I also remember, very clearly, in those days, not minding how it was going to end. All I knew is that everything was right in the world when he was around.

You see I think the element here that chronic positive, happy people may miss is that the trick is to get to a place where any outcome is okay. Or perhaps the understanding that you may not completely control the outcome. You may only be in tune with the ride. It isn’t like you’re leaving the door open for failure, you’re just kind of trusting that you know what you’re doing and letting it happen. The work is to find the right decision, to ask the right questions, to learn the right language, to feel the right internal cues. Far greater than half the battle seems to be figuring out what we want. Once the desire is felt on the level of bone and blood, getting there seems almost an easy ride. Because everything can just fall into place. It is like conspiring with the universe. Or having a main line through to God. Don't we all have access to such a line if only we would pick up the phone?

So while I don’t think that imagining a positive outcome for yourself or others is necessarily about fortune telling. I do believe that the minute you see it all clearly, is the minute you are connected to making it happen. And everything that crosses your path will help with that goal.

No, I don’t make lists. And I don’t pray nearly as often as I should. But I do believe. Some days. In my own power to tap into the frequency of all things good in the world. For some reason, either by luck or by coincidence, I have never been wrong. Nothing I was sure of ever went a different way for me. Everything left unclear became a burden of confusion and disconnectedness.

How about you? Do you believe that your attitude makes a difference for how things happen in your life? Do you think you have the power to change your destiny?

2 comments:

  1. I do think attitude is a huge player in the life game. If I start having a pity party for myself (as in gee, moving yet again) then by the time army guy hits retirement, I'll be an old miserable crone. Not that I mind being a crone, just not miserable! I make lists, BUT, I don't get bent outta shape if I can't cross everything off. I'm not a smiling Pollyanna, but I don't do victim very well either:)

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  2. Hello Julie,
    I have not checked in to your posts for over a year, because every time I reloaded my website - the same old ( and lovely ) story came up. Actually it was March 2011 " The other room ".
    I thought you had not entered a thing since then. Today I was browsing your spot again - but found " Home " and saw this lovely entry along with the joyful news that you are returning to work. Thank you for this lovely insight. I am glad you are a friend of my daughter because you are a great inspiration
    ( and writer! ).
    Sincerely,
    Yvonne Schalk
    Regina Sask.

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