Posted on 09/01/2004 6:30:31 AM PDT by G.Mason
Does it seem strange that some people COMPLAIN they don’t have enough TIME to be happy, yet they find enough time to be sad?
Not really. You see, their deplorable plight has nothing to do with having sufficient or insufficient time. It has everything to do with complaining.
After all, complaining is the negation of happiness. It’s impossible to complain and be happy at the same time.
So, beware of that insidious disease known as ‘negativitis’ (negative thinking). It is as pervasive as the common cold, but far more damaging. It mutilates, cripples, and corrodes the human spirit.
Those infected by it are broken men and women aimlessly plodding along. The dark clouds brooding over them obscure their vision and cause them to become confrontational, apathetic, and cynical. Their lives are like flat champagne, without any sizzle.
So, how do we inoculate ourselves against such a harmful disease?
It was only after learning about the horrible effects of smoking that people began to give it up. It may be wise to do the same here.
So, let’s review the effects of negativitis.
1. Complaining is worse than doing nothing, for it is digging the rut one is in deeper and deeper. Each time one complains, it becomes increasingly difficult to climb out of the ditch they’ve created. To loosen the grip of this vicious habit, we need to become aware of our complaining, stop it in its tracks, and immediately look for something positive to say. It’s just a matter of replacing a bad habit with a good one.
2. A negative attitude is self-defeating. We won’t find solutions to life’s problems by looking for someone or something to blame. Those who say, "Positive thinking doesn't work for me," have got it backwards. It’s not positive thinking that has to work; YOU have to work. For example, you have to work at appreciating what you have instead of moaning about what you lack.
3. Failure to do what you want to do (be happy) causes physical and mental stress. A rotten attitude, not only delays success, but also shortens life by damaging the immune system (to learn more on how your thoughts affect your immune system, investigate psychoneuroimmunology). So, besides the diseases directly caused by stress, such as heart disease and ulcers, we become susceptible to all manner of other diseases because of a weakened immune system.
4. Do you know anyone with a negative attitude? How many years have they been that way? Two years? Five years? Ten years? That’s how many years of happiness and success they have robbed themselves of. Blinded by their own negativity, they are prevented from seeing the good around them.
5. One characteristic of negative thinkers is their need to have the world behave according to their wishes. They have never grown up and still live with childish demands. Whenever people and the world fail to act according to their selfish wishes, they are unhappy. Such a poisonous attitude prevents them from growing and learning how to cope with life's challenges. 6. Everything negative we say about ourselves to ourselves (self-talk) and to others is a suggestion. We are unwittingly practicing self-hypnosis, programing ourselves for failure, and creating self-fulfilling prophecies.
7. The negative world of our imagination creates a negative world that is real and one that we are forced to live in.
Take Ralph, for example. He’s always complaining about life. “Nowadays people are rude and surly. No matter where you go or what you do, you have to deal with ill-bred people.” As he said this, we made our way to a coffee shop. Once inside, we were greeted by a cheerful chap who asked us what we would like.
Sighing (as if it took a great effect to speak), Ralph, almost inaudibly, ordered a medium sized regular coffee. When it arrived, he started complaining. Pointing to the cup, he said, “This is medium?”
Without waiting for a response, he added, “You should have told me your cups are so small; I would have ordered a large one if I knew.”
Despite the long line that Ralph was holding up, the man behind the counter tried to be patient. Without complaint, he took away the small coffee and replaced it with a large one.
As soon as it arrived, Ralph looked at it aghast and bellowed, “You call this regular? There’s not enough cream!”
The man behind the counter, who only moments ago was cheerful was now upset and sarcastically replied, “Yes, for MOST people, this is regular, but if you INSIST, I’ll put in more cream. Perhaps next time you may want to ask for DOUBLE cream!”
I was next, so I got my coffee and joined Ralph at the table. “See,” he told me, “what did I say to you? People are rude.”
Yes, in Ralph’s world, people ARE rude, but what he does not realize is he makes them so.
8. A particularly pernicious effect of ‘negativitis’ is that it sets one up for the mentality of a victim. Those with a woe-is-me attitude sit around in misery, waiting to be rescued. But they wait in vain because no one can rescue them from their own attitude. They are the only ones who can change it. And until they do so, they are condemned to continue suffering.
9. Another adverse effect of negativity is that it sets one up for the magic-bullet-syndrome. That is, the victim of ‘negativitis’ spends their time looking for a quick, easy fix, when none exists.
By denying a fundamental law of life that states anything worthwhile requires effort to achieve, they achieve nothing.
They won’t make progress until they realize that nothing in life is free. They’ve got to be willing to do what it takes to get what they want.
10. Also, beware of the fact that negative people attract other complainers. Because those who live in a world of doom and gloom alienate others, they have no choice but to look for other negative people to associate with. They then feed off one another and get locked in a clique of losers.
11. The constant stress that flows from a negative attitude also saps one’s energy, focus, and motivation. It is hardly a formula for success.
12. Also of great concern is the fact that those who refuse to work on improving their negative attitude may slide into depression, self-pity, and hopelessness.
13. Additionally, negative people not only harm themselves; they harm the world. They cease to make a contribution to it.
Instead of helping, they spread gloom and misery everywhere. If they insist on infecting others, why not infect them with laughter? If they must carry something contagious, why not carry a smile?
Imagine being in a small boat drifting in a river. And imagine being unaware that your boat has a motor.
As long as you fail to use that motor you will be a captive of the river. You will be a prisoner without any control over your destination.
Yet, the boat that we’re in does have a motor. We can use it to change course.
That motor is our power of choice. All we have to do is choose to look for the good, for when we do so, that is all we will find!
I do hope you will forgive this rather vain post and see the correlation between the article and why the DNC, Kerry and the left are losers.
All the more reason to expand Libtard Hunting season.
They are DEPRESSINGLY STUPID!
My libtard Haiku.
Lemmings, Liberals
drab, dumb
cliffs, sea
bodies, floating
as raw sewage
Don't apologize. The article is right on. I am not one for all that touchy feely crap. I have recently come to understand the true power of positive thinking, though, after being stuck in a long and deep rut.
Thanks for the imput.
I've been [insert adjective of choice] over these many years to have learned, quite early in life, to be happy and understand that I must help myself.
My glass is always "half full". ;)
Thank you for the post. I agree with your thinking regarding the Demos but more importantly for me, the topic/article is helpful for my current life challanges.
I plan to print it so I see it each morning. Trust this will focus my thought process towards the positive side and make each day the best it can be.
Thanks again and all the best to you and yours...
" I plan to print it so I see it each morning. Trust this will focus my thought process towards the positive side and make each day the best it can be."
Though a total optimist, I too have copied this to my desk top for reading and reminding.
(1) My philosophy professor once made the (fairly obvious) point that unhappiness is the source of all progress. This is a tautology: if you are happy with the status quo, you will not act to change it.
(2) A recent study of chess masters revealed that they "looked ahead" as many "plys" as amateurs and considered similar moves. The difference was that the amateurs spent most time thinking about how to attack while the masters spent more time thinking about the potential adverse effect of a move.
(3) Definitions: "An optimist is a person who goes through life always being disappointed; a pessimist is a person who goes through life always being able to say 'I told you so.'"
--Boris
We don't need to over-analyze things......
Why are Dims losers??? That's just what they are!
BTTT
The article is right on.
Conservative Republicans and most moderate Republicans are optimists.
Rats and their cousins the whining third party trolls are pessimists. Everything has gone to hell, and they blame GW for their failures as human beings.
Even when they are doing great, they whine about what is supposedly happening to others. Look at the super rich elite limo/Gulfsteam rats at the top of their pile. They own several million $ homes, boats, planes, suvs, limos and can afford to do anything, and they whine 24/7 about the devasting GW economy. They go to $50,000 per plate fund raisers to complain about how bad it is.
Follywood, NYC, San Franciso and parts of Floriduh are loaded with these super rich whiners.
With all due respect to "your" professor, he was wrong.
You see, it isn't unhappiness, but necessity, that is the "source of all progress".
To equate happiness with necessity is, on the face of it, an absurdity. Many are very happy with very little. Conversely, many are never happy even though they seemingly have everything.
What makes the wealthy extremely unhappy is when they see someone that is realtively poor elated about life.
Change professors.
I think you nailed it Dave.
"Even when they are doing great, they whine about what is supposedly happening to others. Look at the super rich elite limo/Gulfsteam rats at the top of their pile. They own several million $ homes, boats, planes, suvs, limos and can afford to do anything, and they whine 24/7 about the devasting GW economy. They go to $50,000 per plate fund raisers to complain about how bad it is."
All those mentioned above would commit suicide should they be relegated to live as the common man.
Grow vegetables in a garden? Go bass and crappie fishing? Eat chili at the fair?
I'm dumb, fat and stupid ... and happy!
I have spent the weekend in Columbus, Ohio, visiting my liberal sister. Columbus is a lovely city, by the way. We had a great time!
I have heard that libs are negative people but didn't notice it until I saw the crappy houses with Kerry/Edwards signs next to the well kept houses with Bush/Cheney signs. Ditto for cars sporting bumper stickers.
The state of the house expresses the owner's state of mind, IMHO.
An excellent point.
I must check that concept out.
Thanks for the tip.
My prof would flunk you for playing with words. If you need something and lack it, you are unhappy with the situation.
You equate materialism with 'progress' and this is equivocation which is disallowed in reasoned arguments.
Examples: You need to communicate rapidly but cannot. You dislike this limitation. Thus is born telephone, radio and other communication modalities. You have a disease which hurts and/or kills you. This makes you unhappy. Thus is born medical research for causes/cures. You do not understand how the world works and are curious; the lack of understanding makes you unhappy with your ignorance and leads to the study of physics. All are examples of progress and only distantly related to materialism.
Dunce cap on; back of the class for you.
--Boris
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