The world can be a dark and dreary place. You look at the news and there is chaos, murder, and uncertainty on just about every page we view. The Television is just as bad. With images of war and governments trying to scare you with the new and latest pandemic that just may be right around the corner.
We see the evidence of all the negativity building up in our kids as teachers and online influences pushing fear of flaming icebergs and how the latest president is going to round up someone. Our children now have the word anxiety sitting right on the tip of their tongue as they are told to be afraid of even going outside. The Sun will kill you with skin cancer. The air will kill you with pollution. Your leader will kill you because we don’t like them. These kids are now having terms like Climate Anxiety put upon them for these fears
We are against the oldtimers and the annoying youth and their new-fangled language. Society wants people to be on guard for the slightest sneeze even if it is hay fever. We are saturated with the negative. This deep immersion of negative thoughts and belief that every disagreement is somehow hateful has made people think that even being mentally normal somehow an illness.
So what are you consuming every day? Are you listening to trash and fear on repeat? Are you consuming an endless river of negative thoughts or are you consuming more positive energy?
What are you doing to bring more positive results in your life
There is an old programming term called GIGO or Garbage In Garbage Out. In other words, this amounts to you getting what you put in. If you are eating a lot of garbage like chips and sweets then you are more likely going to have diabetes and overweight to deal with. If you put more healthy meats and vegetables and less garbage into your body you will have fewer negative health effects.
If you are constantly fighting with your wife and throwing negative accusations at each other. Your relationship will more likely be a negative experience. If you stop the negative actions of playing the victim and start taking the positive actions of claiming responsibility then you will have a stronger relationship. It doesn’t mean bad won’t happen but you will be able to work through those problems better.
So what are you doing to bring more positive energy into your life? What are you doing to better your mental state? What are you doing to better who you are? All of these take positive thoughts and actions to achieve.
If you want to achieve any goals this year you have to have positive thoughts about how you will reach those goals. If you are claiming that you will not be able to do this then guess what you are right. You will fail and do so with little to no grace.
So what are some ways you can bring more positive thoughts into your life and leave the negatives on someone else’s door?
You are what you eat and what you bring into your life.
As mentioned before you are consuming positive thoughts (energy) and negative thoughts (energy). Many times because we are doing things so unintentionally we often don’t see nor recognise what we are doing is causing us a problem.
Take television. You sit and watch CNN or FoxNews You are given reasons to not trust the other side. YOu are told exactly why the opposing side is out to destroy your way of life. Even your radio is not safe if you listen to Over The Air radio you may be listening to conservative radio or progressive radio.
The news networks and local news are out to bring you hope and satisfaction. No, you respond and watch the disasters that are going on in the world. The riots that are going on around us draw our attention because we are attracted to the negative. It activates our means of needing comfort. If we are comfortable then we are not going to do something disruptive. It is easier to sit and binge-watch 4 seasons of Yellowstone than to go out and pursue your dreams.
So where are you bringing negative thoughts into your life? Let us look at some common places.
Are you bringing positivity into your mind?
This is where the uncertainty and fear rise up the most. When you are watching the disaster of the day. Listen to what the newscasters are saying. Come to understand that they are dealing with negative thoughts. Yeah, they may throw in a feel-good post every other week but that is only one 2 minute sound bit out of an hour newscast. The rest is often set to put you into worry mode.
How are you feeding your mind? Are you learning and growing or are you just taking in words? Are you improving who you are or are you just reading fiction books? Now fiction is good yes. I read at least two fiction books each year. They are Atlas Shrugged at the start of the New Year and The Fountain Head at the start of July. You can consume positive thoughts through fiction stories but you will grab more from the books you read and listen to. You do want to steer away from political books though they are not written for the positive outcome. They are designed to get you spun up.
So Start looking at what you are reading watching listening to. How positive are the words to the lyrics of your songs? If you listen to many of today’s hits are about different forms of debauchery so you have to make that call.
Start finding positive podcasts and books that will help you become better at something. Find classes that help you out. You can even find churches that are about the joy of life and not the fear of the world going to hell in a handbasket.
Are you bringing positivity into your body
How are you bettering your health? We all know the saying you are what you eat. Are you putting good stuff into your body or are you putting crap into your body? Sadly, most of us put some type of highly processed garbage into our bodies on an hourly basis. From potato chips to microwavable dinners, most of these foods are so heavily processed. They do not resemble what they started out being. Next time you have a chance, look at the number of ingredients listed on the item you are eating. How many words are in there that you struggle to pronounce?
A great example of this is the difference between margarine and butter. Salted butter has two ingredients, salt and butter. Margarine has way more ingredients than that. Now, many people wanna claim that margarine is healthier, but I’ll leave that for you to decide.
Another example is McDonald’s hamburgers. Yeah, they’re quick to grab but if you notice that they do not decompose if you find them lost in your kid’s baby seat? Something natural would typically decompose not just dry out. If you can eat stuff with fewer ingredients and closer to the source the better.
I honestly don’t know if this is called clean eating, but this is what I refer to as clean eating. Eat as close to the source as you can. Steaks are better hamburger meat if it is from a private butcher. It has fewer fillers and is typically a darker-colored meat because they don’t put in the pink slime stuff.
Yeah, there’s a lot of comfort food that you end up cutting out like potato chips and McDonald’s french fries, but that craving that you have for all that junk food is just you coming off of a dependence upon sugar. And that is the big thing that will provide more health to you is getting off of the dependence on refined sugar.
The effort that you put into your body is also something that you want to pay attention to. Are you exercising your body regularly or are you just being a lump on the couch? When you get finished with the work you have to do, do you go break a sweat at the local gym?
We have to work out our bodies along with fueling our bodies with quality exercise.
Are you bringing positivity into your Soul
Do you have a passion that you are actively pursuing? This keeps your mind young. It allows for a fire in the belly and a light in the eyes to shine for those around you to see and follow. What are you doing to further your purpose? Sadly most of us don’t do much. Most men don’t pursue their dreams. They believe their purpose is just to provide for their family.
Now while this is one of men’s many purposes, we also need something that excites us and drives us to stay curious. What is that one thing that you love to talk about incessantly? What is that one thing that while you’re working you lose all track of time? These are close to what feeds your soul and when you’re doing that you are ensuring you have a better chance of living longer and having a more fulfilled life.
When we just sit on the couch, this is where so much of our discontent comes from. This is where our resentment of people who become successful comes from. This is because people who are successful and fulfilled are doing the things that we truly wish we would do and regret not doing
Are you bringing positivity into your Community?
Jim Rhon famously stated that you are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with. Who do you have around you that lifts you? How many people do you have in your inner circle? These are the important questions you need to ask because you need a group of noblemen around you. Those guys you can turn to when life gets tough. You need a group of men that can stand around and y’all can enjoy a beer And just be guys together.
Bringing positivity into your family is also part of growing your community. You have a strong stronger community when you build on the intimacy with your wife. When you can have uncomfortable conversations with her and neither one of y’all runs to the victim corner, you have a strong relationship. Yet if one of y’all avoids the conflict then that’s where some work may need to be done. Are you willing to put in the positive efforts and work to improve your relationship with your wife?
You can improve your marriage. It’s not easy. It’s not simple. It takes work. And it pays out in spades when you apply the effort. When you decide it is worth fighting for you will do what is needed. Do you need to have some marriage counseling, you’ll be a lot more willing if you know it will improve your relationship. Do you want to achieve relationship goals then maybe having a relationship coach is more in line with what you’re wanting.
Either way, no matter how you approach it you can improve your relationship with your wife. You can grow your community of men both at the same time, but it does take work and intentionality.
How do you bring in more positive thoughts?
So how do you bring more positive thoughts into your life? You first have to pay attention to what the thoughts are that you’re having. You have to step back and look at how you’re approaching the different challenges in your life.
If you want to keep your mind sharp or you are finding yourself full of anxiety, then you need to learn how to change your thoughts. Examine what you’re thinking so that you can alter the results that you’re having.
You’re 50 pounds overweight what are you eating that can be dumped out of your routine? It’s going to take work. It’s gonna take dedication. It’s going to take you being willing to get out of your comfort zone.
Not enough friends go find some start talking to men and see if these are the type of men you want in your life. If the friends you have are holding you back then you may need to find ways to upgrade your friends. Yes, it may sound a little cold. May sound a little mean yet maybe you’re also the one who’s holding your friends back from hitting the success they need. So is that really cold? Is that insensitive? Well, you have to decide that for yourself.
Tired of sitting on the couch? Tired of seeing the world go by while you get left behind? Then maybe you need to start finding your purpose. See how people are attracted to you once you start pursuing a cause. Watch how people change their opinions of you once you’re in pursuit of your dreams
Step back look and see what it is you want to accomplish. Examine why you struggle to accomplish that. When you do, you will start to see what thoughts you’re having that could be changed, and when you change those thoughts that may just very well be the key that opens up a world of possibilities for you this year.
