Change Focus, Look for the Positive

We need to become good finders. We need to focus on the positive in life. Let's start looking for what is right in a person or situation instead of looking for what is wrong. Because of our conditioning, we are so attuned to finding fault and looking for what is wrong that we forget to see the positive picture.

 Even in paradise, fault finders will find faults. Most people find what they are looking for. If they are looking for friendship, happiness and the positive, that is what they get. If they are looking for fights or indifference, then that is what they get. Caution looking for the positive does not mean overlooking faults

What is your focus? Become a digger for gold. If you are looking for what is wrong with people or with things, you will find many. What are you looking for? Andrew Carnegie's reply has a very important message. There is something positive in every person and every situation. Sometimes we have to dig deep to look for the positive because it may not be apparent. Besides, we are so used to looking for what is wrong with other people and situations, we forget to see what is right. Someone once said that even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

Remember when you go looking for gold, you have to move tons of dirt to get to an ounce of gold. But when you go looking, you don't go looking for the dirt, you go looking for the gold.

READ THIS - Negative people will always Criticize
and also

READ - Some People always look for the negative

Reference - Story - looking for the gold and Negative Attitude

The Consequences of a Negative Attitude

Our life is an obstacle course and we become our own biggest obstacle by having a negative attitude. People with a negative attitude have a hard time keeping friendships, jobs, marriage and relationships. Their attitude leads to

• bitterness 
• resentment 
• a purposeless life 
• ill health 
• high stress level for themselves and others 

They create a negative environment at home and work and become a liability to society. They also pass on their negative behavior to others around them and to future generations. 

The Benefits of a Positive Attitude

These are many and easy to see. But what is easy to see is also easy to miss. To mention a few, a positive attitude:

• increases productivity  
• fosters teamwork  
• solves problems  
• improves quality  
• makes for congenial atmosphere  
• breeds loyalty  
• increases profits  
• fosters better relationships with employers, employees, and customers  
• reduces stress  
• helps a person become a contributing member of society and an asset to their country  
• makes for a pleasing personality 

Twelve Great Teachings of Swami Vivekananda

1. We are what our thoughts have made us; so take care about what you think. Words are secondary. Thoughts live; they travel far.

2. You cannot believe in God until you believe in yourself.

3. You have to grow from the inside out. None can teach you, none can make you spiritual. There is no other teacher but your own soul.

4. Talk to yourself at least once in a day. Otherwise, you may miss a meeting with an EXCELLENT person in this world.

5. Anything that makes you weak physically, intellectually and spiritually, reject as poison.

6. All the power is within you, you can do anything and everything. Believe in that; don't believe that you are week, stand up and express the divinity within you.

7. Strength is life weakness is death.

8. The whole secret of existence is to have no fear, never fear what will become of you. Depend on no one. Only the moment you reject all help are you freed.

9. The more you think of yourself as a shining immortal spirit, the more eager you will be to be absolutely free of matter, body and sense. This is the intense desire to be free.

10. You are the creator of your own destiny.

11. Each work has to pass through these stages - ridicule, opposition, and then acceptance. Those who think ahead of their time are sure to be misunderstood.

12. The uplift of the women, the awakening of the masses must come first, and then only can any real good come about for the country, for India.

Qualities of Optimist - Adop It

Who is an optimist? 
It is well described by the following:

• Be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of  mind.  
• Talk health, happiness, and prosperity to every  person you meet.  
• Make all your friends feel there is something in them.  
• Look at the sunny side of everything. 
• Think only of the best, work only for the best, and expect only the best.  
• Be as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own.  
• Forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future.  
• Give everyone a smile.  
• Spend so much time improving yourself that you have no time left to criticize others.  
• Be too big for worry and too noble for anger

Check out the qualities of Pessimist - Beware

Some people always look at the negative side. Who is pessimist? 

Pessimists

• are unhappy when they have no troubles to speak 
• feel bad when they feel good, for fear they will feel worse when they feel better 
• spend most of their life at complaint counters 
• always turn out the lights to see how dark it is are 
• always looking for cracks in the mirror of life 
• stop sleeping in bed when they hear that more people die in bed than anywhere else 
• cannot enjoy their health because they think they may be sick tomorrow 
• not only expect the worst but make the worst of whatever happens 
• don't see the doughnut, only the hole 
• believe that the sun shines only to cast shadows 
• forget their blessings and count their troubles 
• know that hard work never hurts anyone but believe "why take a chance?" 

Negative People will Always Criticize

Some people criticize no matter what. It does not matter which side you are on, they are always on the other side. They have made a career out of criticizing. They are "career critics." They criticize as if they will win a prize at a contest. They will find fault with every person and every situation. You will find people like this in every home, family, office.

They go around finding fault and telling everybody how bad things are and blaming the whole world for their problems. We have a name for these people. They are called energy suckers. They will go to the cafeteria and drown themselves in 20 cups of tea and coffee and smoke to their hearts' content with one excuse: they are trying to relax. All that they are doing is causing more tension for themselves and for others around them. They spread negative messages like a plague and create an environment conducive to negative results.

Robert Fulton invented the steamboat. On the banks of the Hudson River he was displaying his new invention. The pessimists and the skeptics were gathered around to observe. They commented that it would never start. Lo and behold, it did. As it made its way down the river, the pessimists who said it would never go, started shouting that it would never stop. What an attitude!