Do you allow negative thoughts prevent you from living life? Life can be one big traffic jam when you allow your mind to create them. You can stay stuck on the highway of life or you can find a way around the traffic.
Why is it that every time you have to be somewhere at a specific time you run into traffic? There are unexpected car accidents, slow drivers, random household appliances in the middle of the road, unnecessary construction and roadblocks. I've learned that possessing a negative attitude, taking negative actions, or making negative comments are mental roadblocks that become physical roadblocks.
When a roadblock appears, detours must be found. Questions must be asked "What now?" "What can I do?" "What are the possibilities?" Navigating around any roadblock takes action. Mostly it’s hard work. It's easier to stay in one spot and complain, but complaining and being negative gets you nowhere. Complaining is remaining. And that’s what most people do, isn’t it? They just stay in one place and don't advance. Isn’t that more frustrating than the hard work of navigating around the roadblock?
Last Lecture author Randy Pausch said, “Barriers are put into our lives for the purpose of showing how badly we want something.”
Negativity is a HUGE barrier for a lot of people. It's easy to be negative. When someone asks, "tell me something good about yourself,” it takes time, it requires thought. But if you're asked to think about the negative, the answers come easy. Why is that? People invariably say, "That's just the way it is!" or "I like to complain." But I ask, "Does it have to be that way?" "What can be done to change the situation?"
Positive people recognize that complaining or doing nothing don't provide a productive solution to a problem. The energy wasted on complaining could be used to find a solution. Ultimately that is what everyone wants. A positive solution. Positive people come up with a list of options and plans to improve life. Negative people just complain about reasons things can't work.
With any negative situation, there are two options.
A. Let the negative people bring the positive people down.
B. The positive people can help change the attitudes of the negative people.
Ultimately it's up to the negative people to look at themselves in the mirror and mentally challenge themselves to change their attitudes and beliefs. It will take work, but eventually they will discover, that in the long run it's easier to be positive than it is to give-up when they encounter a roadblock. Being negative is the roadblock to people Living Life.
