I have been focusing on filling my mind with only positive things and keeping the negative things out. I have read many books about this. Being an avid student of NLP has also helped me recognize negative communication and negative influences, and I just avoid these things or ignore them as much as possible. As a result, I have taught myself how to be positive the large majority of the time. It wasn’t an overnight process, it did take work and time.
I have been avoiding TV, newspapers, and the media for years! Many people think that I am crazy for admitting this. I have good reasons for this though, and I know that doing this has made a huge positive impact on the quality of my life.
I would estimate that 90% or more of the “news” that is reported is negative. I don’t have any need for filling my mind with these things. In many cases, I can’t do anything on a global scale (at least not yet), and I feel that it just drags me down and makes me focus on negative things. I’ve read some great books about this too. You should check out “give me a break” by John Stossel. He explains this in a lot more detail than I can here.
Tim Ferriss also talks about this in his widely acclaimed book, “The 4-Hour Workweek”. He challenges his readers to go on an immediate one-week “media fast” and to see how this changes their lives. Ferriss says, “Most information is time-consuming, negative, irrelevant to your goals, and outside of your influence.” I agree with this 100%. This is a great way to gain back more precious time, and keep yourself positive!
Another thing that Tim Ferriss talks about is what he calls “Practicing the art of nonfinishing”. Starting something doesn’t mean that you should finish it. If you start reading an article, and it is bad, put it down. If you start watching a movie and you don’t enjoy it, then just stop watching it and do something else. This is another great way to save time and do more of what you really want to do. Ferriss says, “More is not better, and stopping something is often 10 times better than finishing it.”
Recently, I started watching a movie, which will remain unnamed. I couldn’t believe the amount of violence, excessive bad language, and the negative outlook of the characters. After 15 minutes, I shut it off. What is the point? Why would I want to fill my mind with that? I recently watched a popular TV show and had a similar reaction. Just in the past week, I started watching 2 movies that I stopped before the 20 minute mark. I am happy about this too. Because of this, I was able to watch a movie that I thought was truly good and positive and entertaining.
This is what I want to leave you with: be aware of and be conscious of what you are putting into your mind, what you are listening to, what you are watching, and what you are paying attention to. There is an increasingly larger percentage of negative information and negative influences out there. You might not think that these will affect you, but I know for a fact that they affect me and I have seen this in other people as well. In my opinion, it isn’t even worth your time focusing on things that will drag you down and distract you from your goals.
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Tags: NLP, Positive Attitude