Example: Patrick is walking down the sidewalk after a rain storm. A car that is driving along side of him hydroplanes and loses control. The car ends up swerving and narrowly misses Patrick but does completely soak him when it splashes through a puddle.
Patrick could be very negative about this: “Oh look at this freaking crazy driver, just soaked me.”
Or he could look at this differently: “This could have been far worse, I’m only wet. I wonder if the driver is ok.”
There are two things at play in the second instance. First Patrick is not viewing himself as the center of attention. Second he is looking at the positive immediately. Today’s focus however will be on the latter.
One of the single most important things you can do to improve your point of view to looking at the positives is an exercise of doing just that. I’ve talked about an exercise that came from the Army’s Resiliency Training called Find the Good Stuff.
Another great idea came from eHow
Personally I think as a transformative exercise this would be better conducted on a monthly or even twice a month. The more you begin to look at the awesome stuff that happens within your life. The more you realize life is pretty awesome and could always be far worse.
Edit: Of course if you really want to start changing your perspectives and be a Happier person then you should read The Happiest Life and Happiness is A Serious Problem. I’ve written a review of The Happiest Life by Hugh Hewitt already, and I think it might be time to review of Happiness is a Serious Problem by Dennis Prager as well. Of course you don’t need to take my word for it. Kevin Gregory over at Best Books For Men wrote an excellent review of The Happiest Life that is far more compelling than anything I could tell you.
When you do pick up a copy the best advice I can give you is to take notes and take advantage of my 7 Gifts tool.
#happiness
