There are times when I think that watching all of the Ted videos is just one big blur of really interesting people talking about really interesting topics. And then I find myself in a situation and I remember watching a particular video and I remember the key theme and as it seems to resonate quite well with a situation I am in or one of my friends is experiencing. In this particular instance the theme of the video related to why we are so good at finding the negative in life, why we can hypothesize all of the bad and why we rarely think of the great things that can happen to us. According to the Ted speaker it was a function of survival. In the early days of man there were way more dangers than not and a good (negative) mind could save itself by figuring out all of the bad that could happen and then working to avoid them.

The issue is that in today’s era is that we really have fewer things to worry about. Yet, we still carry our “original” negative mindset. As it does us little productive good these days to focus on the negative, I suggest that to live THPL you have to work beyond this negative scenario planning approach and get into the “what is possible”, “life is great”, “and the best is yet to come” mindset.

And while this approach might come harder to some than others, we can all get there using a test and learn approach. Try it tomorrow – When you feel the potential to go negative, stop yourself and force a smile and say, I am happy! And then you can do it for real and give your energy to many other people and then, just maybe, they will adopt it and before you know it we will all be focused on the “how we can” positive view of THPL.

Loving life and making sure that I believe it in all things possible

Ciao

Joe