See the Good – Say the Good
Your attitude is within your control. It’s not dependent on circumstances or people.
Your attitude is your orientation toward life.
I’ve decided to take charge of my attitude. By nature I’m negative by choice I’m positive. Read, “The Four to One Rule will Change Your Life,” to learn one of the strategies for managing your attitude. If you took the “4 to 1” challenge you know it makes a difference.
A New Attitude Maker:
This week I’m adopting a new strategy for developing and maintaining a positive attitude, call it “See the Good – Say the Good.” This strategy fuels positivism. It also creates positive environments.
I’m choosing to look for the good in others and when I see it, I’ll say it to them – See the Good, Say the Good.
Leaders and managers improve things. Improvers identify lack and fix it. You’ll always need to improve things. You and the people around you haven’t arrived yet. Give improvement a rest for a few days.
A New Challenge:
Can you see the good and say the good for an entire day? How about a few days or a week? You may find that by creating a positive environment people will improve themselves.
Put a reminder sticker on the mirror. Tell a friend your commitment. Telling others where you’re going helps you get there. Including others can make “see the good, say the good” a fun game.
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What strategies can you suggest for creating and maintaining a positive attitude?
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NIce, Dan. I’m one of those “improvers”. I’m going to accept the challenge and put that tendency on the back burner. See good, say good for a day, then a week. Maybe I can figure out later how to be an improver while seeing and saying good. Mmmm …
Hi Brian, Best to you. Keep us in the loop on how things go. If you’re like me it’ll be a process of successes and failures that lead to more successes than failures. Cheers!
Good challenge, Dan. At the moment I find myself thinking the negative, then finding the positive and saying that. It’s an improvement – I used to think the negative and say it and be unable to find the positive in anything. I’m thinking the next step is to not notice the negative at all, but is that too much to ask?
Hi Vanessa, I’m thinking that being positive isn’t being blind. 🙂 Cheers!
Dan, having an A type personality I am prone to analize everything, people, situations, problems ect…ect. Over the course of time I have allowed myseft to become negative as a first responce. Its going to take a lot of perposeful work to retrain myseft to think differently but its time to get started! Thanks for expressing a way to get me in gear…..
Hi Joe,
Thanks for bringing up the down side of type A. It’s great to achieve but like you, I think it’s pretty easy to slip into negativity.
Best wishes,
Dan
I love this! We’ve been intentionally focusing on just this topic for the past few months at my house, and I have to tell you … it really works! It’s hard work to stop the negative thoughts that want to keep shooting out of your mouth… but, the Holy Spirit is a great housekeeper.
I’m often reminded that the law is a taskmaster, but the new covenant is intended to work our edification. The change in my speaking habits is showing up in transformed life circumstances, and it’s exciting to watch the power of God’s word at work in real life scenarios. There is also great joy in the culmination of the process!
As a man speaks….
(it works for the girls, too!)
Hi Connie,
Thanks for an encouraging story. I wish you continued success.
Cheers,
Dan
Dear Dan,
It is really an inspirational post. When we see good and say good, it rejuvenates us. And cycle goes on. It is possible but difficult to practice. I have strong belief that our senses work as per our will. If we are willing to see something, we will see it, if we are willing to say something, we will say it. It means we need to strengthen our will if we want to maintain positive attitude. I admit that generally people are negative by nature and positive by choice. Examples are many; we do many unethical things but if we need to choose the actions of others, we prefer ethical actions. I think each one of us has many things that we hate. So, the better strategies would be to find out positive in those things that we hate most. It is very natural that human beings see negative things in others. He also does not require any prior knowledge to talk negative about the things. But it needs effort, analysis and will to talk positive about something. I would suggest saying positive about the person who you dislike most. Find out best things in the person and talk with your friends. Similarly, you can find a situation or culture that you do not like and try to find out some positive things about that. While it is easier said than done, once i is practiced for sometimes, it will definitely change the way we see at people and things in our lives.
Dear Dan,
An interesting post with a simple catchy title.
Remaining positive is an art and the same can be learnt with strong will and determination. One needs to start this habit from home, work place and then social circles. When we talk of developing ‘Say Good’ Attitude it is essential to have ‘See Good’ Attitude. Look at positive strengths of an other person first and acknowledge good things at appropriate time. One can start this habit with a spouse and children and see the changed positive response. A simple ‘Thank you’ or ‘Sorry’ word can make a tremendous difference.
Be in a good company of like-minded people who are sincere and are positive in their approach. It’s like ‘Laugh & the world laughs with you’. Everything is possible if one is bit serious in its implementation.
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I recently had a mentor use the phrase “Chose Your Hard” and it stuck with me. I choose to be positive or negative of which both are a version of hard. By choosing to be positive it seems to make the day and relationships easier to manage.
I am someone who tends to be naturally positive. I can’t even let a negative comment on the weather made by a stranger on an elevator go by without trying to flip it to the positive. I think a big key is the second sentence of your post: “It’s not dependent on circumstances or people.” So many people let outside issues or people determine their attitude. I commend you for your experiment and think you will find life good here on the sunny side of the street.
This is a great post and great advice. It applies not only to our work in the marketplace, but to larger issues as well. For example, I really want to help people who are less fortunate than myself but often get bogged down in “will it really make any difference?” (negative thinking). But I recently read a very encouraging book, “Fast Living” by Dr. Scott C. Todd, which is about how we are actually winning the battle against extreme poverty. And it outlines small but practical steps we can take to make a difference. I love this kind of thinking! There’s more about the book at http://www.live58.org.
I really love this, Dan. I’m a pretty positive person and I see the good, but I often jump into new tasks or go onto other things before I say it. That’s such an important thing. Thanks for the great reminder.
And thank you, Jason. I appreciate your encouraging word. Cheers, Dan
I like this. Will try to improve. I think I always ASSUMED a positive, even miraculous outcome, and so focused on what could be done. But others, feeling overwhelmed or discouraged heard that as only downer/criticism. So they weren’t inspired. Then I was hurt by lack of enthusiasm, vision, and work. And so, of course, what could have been done was not.
So, I’m looking for ways to get things done. Not a positive that reframes horrible as okay and “let’s adjust” or “Be okay anyway.” But a positive that says, “Yes, we can get to great.”
Its a great time for me to start this!
Improvers find opportunities in chaos, because they see through different senses and see the positive side of every situation. Few months ago, I also create a blog on positive thinking http://willlukang.wordpress.com/2010/08/19/positive-thinking-2/
Let me know what you think.
Will, great blog on positive thinking…thanks for pointing it out!!
Dan,
Thanks for sharing! It is truly amazing; this is a free, easy to use “resource”, within our control, that makes a tremendously positive impact on ourselves and those around us yet it is so infrequently used. What a great reminder – greatly appreciated!
Thanks Shannon… enjoy