Thoughts About Positive Thinking

For years I’ve had mixed feelings about positive thinking. Sorry to sound negative, but positive thinking can take you only so far. For instance, I might think positively about becoming an accomplished jockey, but at nearly 6-foot-2 and over 200 pounds, I’m more than a tad beyond the size limit for that diminutive profession. At the same time, I might desire to be a center in the NBA, but that’s unlikely in the forest of 6-foot-10 and seven-foot giants.

"I think, therefore I am...what?"

“What the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.” That’s been the positive thinking mantra. Sometimes it’s right. A friend dreamed about becoming a successful salesman, and that’s what he did. But it took much more than just thinking. It required training, hard work, planning and perseverance, along with determination not to become disheartened by setbacks.

Early in my career as a newspaper editor, I conceived and believed about writing magazine articles – and also a book. I achieved these goals and more. But again, it required diligence, dedication, acquiring the necessary skills, and tenacity to try-try again, even when rejection letters arrived in the mailbox.

So positive thinking’s OK to a point, but it takes a lot more than that.

At the same time, negative thinking can destroy your day before it even gets started. So thinking positively definitely trumps thinking negatively. It’s even recommended for good health. Studies have shown that long-term pessimistic thinking can triple the likelihood of a serious “heart event” or other life-threatening health issues.

The late Zig Ziglar, one of the world’s foremost motivational speakers and writers, talked about people sometimes commenting, ”Zig, I loved your talk, but for me, motivation doesn’t last.” Ziglar always responded, “Bathing doesn’t last either. That’s why I recommend it daily.”

So, is it a matter of thinking happy thoughts, or as the Bobby McFerrin song of decades past suggested, “Don’t worry, be happy”? I’ve found positive thinking works best when it’s based not on wishful thinking, but rather on reality – and reliable promises.

For instance, addressing followers of Jesus in the ancient city of Philippi, the apostle Paul wrote, “…whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things” (Philippians 4:8).

In an age when we’re bombarded by negativity – bad news, reports of gloom and doom, harsh conversations and people just waiting for an excuse to spew their anger – it helps, stating it another way, to accentuate the positive.

As Zig Ziglar advised, I’ve found it useful to make it a habit of meditating on positive, motivational thoughts on a daily basis. And I can’t imagine a greater thought than the promise Jesus left His followers, “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).

To parrot one of my favorite speakers, “Think about that.”

“Garbage In, Garbage Out Syndrome”

Recently I cited an old phrase, “garbage in, garbage out,” used by computer technicians to describe faulty data. No matter how good the computer, if it’s programmed improperly or software isn’t working as intended, you’ve got problems.

Sometimes it seems as if our American society – and perhaps the world in general – has become afflicted by what we could call the “garbage in, garbage out syndrome.” We all seem mad, sad, and feeling bad.

This “garbage” comes from many sources. We have violent TV shows, movies, video games and websites, as I referred to recently. But it’s even more pervasive than that.

We celebrate self-absorbed, narcissistic individuals on reality shows and crown them “celebrities,” making them famous for no other reason than they are…self-absorbed and narcissistic. Modern sitcoms and dramas feed us a continual intellectual diet of immorality, greed, selfishness and generally negative thinking.

What's on your mind - or more
accurately, what are you putting into it?

We listen to incessant talk shows on radio and TV, few of them uplifting or encouraging. Most are disparaging toward someone or something, heeding the philosophy, “If you can’t say something bad about somebody, don’t say anything at all.”

We watch cable news networks, where “experts” deliver gloom and doom 24/7, shouting down anyone that disagrees with their commentaries. If you’re not convinced the world is marching toward a cataclysmic end (erroneous, supposed Mayan predictions notwithstanding), you just need to watch more cable news.

Recently on Yahoo.com, top trending “news items” were: the breakup of a celebrity athlete and his girlfriend; the Newtown, Conn. shooter’s haircut; misdeeds of another athlete; a country-western singer’s personal despair; conflict in the Middle East; a huge storm-related traffic pileup in the Midwest; and a woman stealing Christmas lights in the dark of night. The only “uplifting” article was about how good an aging actress looks in a bikini.

But it’s not just the fault of the media. How often do we find ourselves listening to gossip about coworkers, friends or acquaintances, and then passing that information to anyone willing to listen? Or read books with such dismal content that prescriptions for antidepressants should be included?

The Bible states, “As a (person) thinks in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7). Information we store in our minds not only affects our attitudes, but also our actions.

As we embark on this new adventure called 2013, maybe it’s time to turn over the proverbial new leaf by adopting the advice of Philippians 4:8 – “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable -- if anything is excellent or praiseworthy -- think about such things.”

It’s easy to consider the negative, to find fault, to criticize and demean. What would happen if we each made a conscious attempt to focus on things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and praiseworthy? It could be revolutionary!