Last night, I got a text from an old friend who wanted to know if I made New Year’s resolutions. He said that I’m the most optimistic guy he knows and was curious if this was part of my routine. Ironically, I had spent the morning reviewing 2021 and thinking about 2022. My friend, who is on the cusp of retirement, wondered if retired people have goals. Goal setting guided me through forty years of business. Surely, it can guide me through retirement to ensure I’m a good steward of this gift of time.
My friend joked that he viewed plans as an “outline for future failures.” This naturally evolved into a conversation about positive attitude. I shared with him my observations of 36 years in the motivation world.
I’ve found that positive living is more important than simply positive thinking.
I’ve met people who could recite every positive thinking aphorism ever said, yet they failed to operationalize the message. I’ve met others whose comments may have seemed cynical at the time but turned out to be “critical” in an analytical sense. And, these folks lived incredibly positive lives.
Each of us has a cognitive style, which is how we process our realities. Phenomenologically, it differs from person to person. Some people can stand in front of the Mona Lisa and admire great art; others will see the cracks in the plaster on the wall that surrounds the painting. The difference is how individuals process information. It’s in their brain mapping. Seeing the cracks does not make a person negative. It means that they have a “critical” processing skill.
Some people—book editors, quality control personnel, engineers, et al—are paid to look for things that go wrong. This does not mean they are negative people; it means that they have a skill for seeing things that aren’t just quite right. Thank God for them.
The point is that living a positive life is a lot more important than just spinning reality with positive words. My friend agreed.
Tom Reilly is the author of 16 books, including Hope in The Shadows of War (Koehler Books).
