How full is your glass?

“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” – Winston Churchill

In life, you are always filled with choices. You may opt to have a pessimist’s view and live a self-defeated life or you may decide to take the optimist’s view and live an empowering and fulfilling life.

Optimists always expect the best. Pessimists, by contrast, tend to believe that bad events will always befall them, and these bad events will last a long time and undermine everything they do.

Optimists are confronted with the same hard knocks in life, but what differs is the way they explain their misfortune. They tend to believe that defeat is just a temporary event. If they are knocked down, they will stand up. They will more often see opportunities instead of obstacles and learn from their setbacks.

People respond positively to optimists. Optimists are proactive and less dependent on others for their happiness. They usually draw people towards them. Their optimistic view of the world is contagious and they positively influence others.

When the going gets tough, optimists get tougher. Optimists maintain higher levels of well-being during times of stress than those who are less optimistic. In contrast, pessimists are likely to react to stressful events by denying that they exist or by avoiding dealing with these challenges. Pessimists are more likely to quit when difficulties arise.

Optimists are healthier and live longer. Medical research has proven that a positive outlook can cause a measurable increase in the body’s ability to fight disease. Optimists tend to age better.

So why not choose to be an optimist today? And think positively towards a more fulfilled life

“Two men look out through the same bars: One sees the mud, and one sees the stars.” – Frederick Langbridge

Article by John Lloyd, Brandstorm
An extract from my book Smart Thinking for Crazy Times

Do you know how much time we waste in worrying about the wrong problems? Here’s a reliable estimate of the things people worry about:

• Things that never happen: 40%
• Things that are over and done that can never be changed by all the worry in the world: 30%
• Needless worries about our health: 12%
• Time spent worrying about unimportant issues: 10%
• Real legitimate worries: 8%

Therefore, ninety-two per cent of the average person’s worries take up valuable time, cause painful stress, even mental anguish, and are absolutely unnecessary. And of the eight per cent real and legitimate worries, there are two kinds. There are the problems we can solve, and there are the problems that are beyond our ability to personally solve. Most of our real problems usually fall into the first group: the ones we can solve.

Do we have the time to solve these very few real problems? Yes! The average working person has at his or her disposal an enormous amount of free time. In fact, you’ll see this if you total the hours in a year and subtract the sleeping hours. If we sleep eight hours every night, we have about six thousand waking hours, of which about two thousand are spent at work. Now this leaves close to four thousand hours a year when a person is neither working nor sleeping. These are your discretionary hours with which you can do pretty much as you please.

A good starting point to effectively use this discretionary time is to focus on your purpose in life, your goals and your thinking skills. I want to recommend that you take just one hour a day, five days a week, and devote this hour to exercising your mind; your golden hour. My recommendation is an hour before the others are up in the morning. The mind’s clear, the home is quiet and, if you like, with a good cup of coffee, this is the time to get your mind going.

Stop procrastinating; you have more than enough time to design a better life for yourself.

‘Are you upset little friend? Have you been lying awake worrying? Well, don’t worry…I’m here. The flood waters will recede, the famine will end, the sun will shine tomorrow, and I will always be here to take care of you.’ – Charlie Brown to Snoopy

Article by John Lloyd, Brandstorm

‘One kind word can warm three winter months.’ – Japanese Proverb

There are no more positive or powerful phrases in the English language to use than the following:

• Thank you
• I am proud of you
• I appreciate you or I appreciate your efforts

These magical words not only make other people feel good, but they serve as a strong motivational force. But, if saying thank you, I am proud of you and I appreciate you is so powerful, why don’t we say them more often?

Do we forget to do so because we are too preoccupied with ourselves? Has this silenced our voice of gratitude and appreciation? Here’s the good news: developing the habit of saying these powerful words not only benefits others but, like all gifts that we give, it benefits ourselves as well.

Use them often and use them with meaning.

‘The deepest principle of human nature is the craving to be appreciated.’ – William James

Article by John Lloyd, Brandstorm