POSITIVE MENTAL ATTITUDES
POSITIVE MENTAL ATTITUDES – BASIL SPRINGER COLUMN TO APPEAR IN THE BARBADOS ADVOCATE’S BUSINESS MONDAY ON AUGUST 17 2009
“For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. O LORD of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee” – Psalm 84:11-12
This article is inspired by a fortuitous meeting last week with Paul Hadchity. I had not seen him for a long time and we recalled some of his entrepreneurial ideas over the years, not the least of which was the national human chain link project which was championed by the Rotary Club of Barbados on Independence Day, November 30, 1979. That event saw 93,000 persons joining the 67 mile human chain around the island as a symbol of unity in Barbados.
He recalled that the positive energy which he exuded was not generally matched by public and private sector leadership in Barbados and hence many great ideas never saw the light of day. I told him that I was now privileged to lead the charge in promoting the CBET Shepherding Model and Twin Fund Seed and Venture capital concept towards enterprise development, one enterprise after another, and ultimately sustainable economic development.
Although Paul is currently resident between Lebanon, Barbados and the US (whence his wife hails), he promised to dust off his files with some of his project ideas, which are as relevant today as they ever were, with a view of reviving them and then converting them into viable business ventures.
He also recalled a meeting with an elderly lady, on an aircraft sometime ago, who lent him an ear. Afterwards she responded, “Son, life is like photography you need the negatives to develop”. That statement has remained with him until this day.
Throughout my consulting career, I have always encouraged my clients to project an unswerving positive attitude to whatever they undertake. This was inspired by the book “The Power of Positive Thinking” by the Rev. Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, which I read as a teenager. I have counseled “If you focus on the positives, you will get positive results. However, if you focus on the negatives, you will get negative results. It is the same divine law”. So why have anything other than a positive mental attitude? As the Psalmist said “blessed is the man that trusteth in thee”. The primary ingredient, of course, is to be disciplined enough toalways exude positive mental attitudes.
The fortuitous meeting was indeed a very refreshing experience, and Paul and I agreed to meet again later this month with a view to converting concepts into commercial realities.
In support of this positive approach, I came across an article at www.EzineArticles.com by Kevin John, a synopsis of which I would like to share with you.
A positive mental attitude is essential to successfully overcome the challenges you will encounter in your day to day life. Just as you would nurture your body with a good diet and exercise, and aspire to a stress free environment, you need to develop your positive mental attitude with regular mental exercises. Here are John’s 7 habits that will help you: “(1) Always use positive self talk. You are constantly talking to yourself in your mind. It has been estimated that up to 1,500 words a minute flow through your mind. Your thoughts are either positive in nature – “I can do this…” or they are negative in nature “It’s too hard for me…”. Negative self talk will lead to self doubt, poor self esteem and a negative mental attitude. Positive self talk will lead to confidence, high self esteem and positive mental attitudes; (2) Control the pictures in your mind. You use mental pictures to represent places, events, dreams and visions. You may not be aware of all the pictures that you make. One thing is certain, the outer world you will see is a reflection of the inner pictures that you create in your mind today; (3) Feed your mind a healthy diet. You are bombarded on a daily basis with negativity. People with negative attitudes, media that focus on bad news are everywhere. You need to take positive steps to give your mind a daily diet of positive information – motivational tapes, books and videos, intelligent reporting in quality newspapers; (4) Associate with positive people. Your level of success has been proven to be strongly correlated with the people you associate with. If you mix with people with a negative attitude and low levels of success in life, that’s where you’ll end up. If you mix with successful people with positive, supportive mental attitudes, you’ll join them; (5) Positive training and development. You should strengthen your mind with personal growth and development programs .The key to a better future is to start from the inside and grow yourself as a person; (6) Develop a healthy lifestyle. The old saying “a healthy body makes a healthy mind” is correct. You need to ensure that you have high levels of mental energy in order to deal with the world and maintain a positive mental attitude; and (7) Be proactive. If you are proactive, you will always take the initiative, you will be in control of your life and your self esteem will rise. If you let yourself be reactive, life will control you, you’ll become the victim of circumstances and you will have low self esteem”.
How are you Basil? I am tremendous, thank you!
(Dr. Basil Springer GCM is Change-Engine Consultant, Caribbean Business Enterprise Trust Inc. – CBET – Columns are archived at www.cbetmodel.org)