“In the midst of winter, I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer.”
Albert Camus
“When it rains, it pours.”
“Just my luck, I probably won’t get noticed.”
‘”There’s nothing to look forward to.”
Sound familiar? These statements reflect a negative attitude, not atypical in our society. An attitude– experienced as internal dialogue, pictures and feelings– directly affects our likelihood of performance. People who manifest negative attitudes expect to fail and therefore operate at a low level of energy. Others who cultivate more positive attitudes expect to achieve, work harder for their desired outcomes and, more often than not, perform at a level commensurate with one who thinks positively.
How many times have you entered a store, approached a salesperson with a request and heard, “The only thing we have is…” Or one comparable to fingernails on a blackboard, “Alls I know is…” Some people can’t wait to tell you what they can not do for you! The attitude behind their dialogue is negative. Often, what they are doing internally is “negative mismatching.” That is, they create internal experiences about a particular event and respond to what is missing! The glass is always half-empty. After a corporate or business meeting in which a new concept or procedure is introduced, they will tell you why it will not work. Give them a parade and they will make it rain. “Mismatching” inside is not at issue. Sometimes, when positive, that is in search of what is different as opposed to what is missing, it can be a useful strategy for many things from passing multiple-choice tests to detecting disease. However, as a strategy for maintaining a negative attitude, it can be deadly.
A new branch of medicine—psycho-neuroimmunology– studies the relationship between mental attitude and health (by the way, if you think you can not pronounce that…pretend to believe that you can, and see what happens). Physicians have discovered an encouraging relationship between a positive attitude and resistance to deadly diseases, improved immune function and recovery from surgery. So why think negatively? What, specifically does that accomplish? In contrast, think positive…for a change! Thinking positively creates a driving force– a momentum– toward accomplishing a task. When you expect to succeed, you work harder; make a better impression on peers, colleagues, employees, spouses, encouraging them to help you where possible. Ultimately, this can increase the probability of success at your endeavors.
“That’s easy for some people, but with all the stress in my life, how can I go around thinking positive all the time?” Given the opportunity to succeed, some people insist on snatching defeat from the jaws of victory by identifying with the obstacles of positive thinking. That is, the events that prevent something from working. This may be accomplished in several ways: Exaggerate the difficulties of a particular situation, underestimate your abilities to rectify those difficulties, create useless generalizations in which one case of poor performance represents the entire class of behavior (i.e., I spilled my drink…I’m always such a “klutz.”) and, restrict your criteria of success so that little– if anything– will be deemed acceptable; then comment on the familiarity of this outcome (“That’s par for the course…”).
Developing a positive attitude requires no greater investment of time and energy than does a negative attitude. On the other hand, the ability to think positively will not likely hit you like a “bolt out of the blue”, either. An attitude is a way of deciding, planning. And as long as you are planning, why not learn to plan success, rather than disaster? Arrange the conditions for a positive attitude. To improve the taste of life, try sweetening the pot:

• 1- Wake up to soft, sweet music, rather than a nagging, loud, discordant alarm.
• 2- Create internal experiences (pictures, sounds, feelings) about specific positive events or activities you would like to accomplish on a given day. Imagine already having done so.
• 3- Turn the glass upside down so it’s “half-full!” Find positive features about the people with whom you interact and state them.

Who knows– with practice, you may actually begin to believe you are changing…but don’t be fooled by it.