In my last post, I talked about the importance of relentless positivity. How it can bring you from darkness into light and take you places you thought you could never go.
There is a downside if you take what I’m saying the wrong way. I am not saying to be the stereotypical eternal optimist. The guy who thinks everything is sunshine and roses.
In Jim Collins’ book Good To Great he talks about an interview he did with a former prisoner of war Admiral Jim Stockdale. Admiral Stockdale was imprisoned by the Vietnamese army for 8 years, tortured more than 20 times, and was in as hopeless a situation as you can imagine.
How did he survive? Here are Admiral Stockdale’s own words:
“I never doubted not only that I would get out, but also that I would prevail in the end and turn the experience into the defining event of my life, which, in retrospect, I would not trade.”
Now that is s strong Why to get you through the day! Collins then asked him who were the ones who failed to make it out.
“Oh, that’s easy. The optimists. Oh, they were the ones who said, ‘We’re going to be out by Christmas.’ And Christmas would come, and Christmas would go. Then they’d say, ‘We’re going to be out by Easter.’ And Easter would come, and Easter would go. And then Thanksgiving, and then it would be Christmas again. And they died of a broken heart.”
You can not depend solely on a positive attitude to put food on the table, help you survive, or even get you through a test you haven’t studied for. You have to put in the work!
Take a look at your situation now. What do you most want to change? Lose weight, go up a flight a stairs without breathing hard, get off medications, not feel so exhausted all the time.
Whatever it is, it is still very important to believe you can change the situation but you must take action. Keep your relentless positivity, face the brutal reality of the situation, and then do whatever it takes to overcome those hurdles.
