Positive or Negative?

My good friend, Andrea, has came across a neat little book called "The Little Book of Big Motivation" by Eric Jensen. It contains 180 passages and tips to help overcome obstacles and help stay positive and motivated. She has decided to share them with me, so I can post them to the blog and share them with you.

#1. Surround yourself with friends who "think positive." We are all susceptible to the beliefs, values, and attitudes of our peers. If others around you are not motivated or are only stumbling toward an uncertain future, it will adversely affect you and your performance. It's important that you spend more time with those who are especially optimistic and motivated.


This quote ties in with Jim Rohn's famous saying; "You are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with". Think about it, how many truly successful people do you know that hang out with a group of unmotivated lazy slackers on a regular basis? Not many. The law of attraction says that like attracts like. People who think and act in a positive manner attract more positive things into their lives, leaving less room for negativity. Respectively, those who choose to think and act negatively attract more negativity into their lives. Either way the law of attraction has a snowball effect, soon you are either completely surrounded by positive energy or you're submerged in a sea of negativity. It is your choice, remember a few days ago when I said "You are the boss of yourself."? You choose your attitude, your feelings, and your actions. Which means, in the end you choose your results.

HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT:
Make a list of all the people you spend time with; friends, co-workers, family, neighbors, people you talk to on the phone, people you email, etc... Be sure to think of everybody. Now take that list and divide it into 3 categories; positive, negative, & neutral.

Put a #1 by everybody who has a positive influence on your life. People you laugh and have fun with. People you can talk about your goals and future with. People who make you feel happy and light hearted. People who are happy the majority of the time. You get the idea.

Now put a #2 by the names of the people who have a negative influence on your life. This part may be hard, you may notice that some of the friends and family that you're spending the most time with are the most negative of all. These are the people that do nothing but complain, they are able to find the worst in everything no matter what. These people are so busy complaining about how bad things are that they wouldn't know a good day if it hit them in the face.

Lastly put a #3 by the rest of the names on your list. These are the people that you can't quite decide if they are positive or negative, maybe they are a little bit of both.

Now take a clean sheet of paper and mark the lines A through Z. Put the name of the person you spend the most time with in slot A, this will probably be your spouse. Then work your way down until you get to the person you spend the least amount of time with. Be sure to keep them marked with their 1, 2, and 3 designation.

This little exercise is an easy way to figure out where your energy is going. Are you spending the majority of your time with the positive people in your life or are you spending more time with the whiners and complainers? It is important to focus your energy on quality relationships that have a positive effect on your mind and spirit. I don't mean for you to completely cut all ties with your friends and family because they are in the #2 category, but it is in your best interest to limit the time you spend with them.

Trivia......poison won't kill you if the dose is small enough. A widely used blood thinner medicine is made from the same ingredient that is in rat poison. I would say I see at least 5 patients everyday that take this drug and it keeps them alive. Yet if they took too much it would be lethal. Take this into consideration when you are spending time with your friends and family. Spending a little time with your #2 friends won't totally ruin your positive force field, just don't let them sink their fangs into you.