Daily Dose of Positivity: Don’t try to avoid or escape

Any attempt to escape the negative, to avoid it or quash it or silence it, only backfires. The avoidance of suffering is a form of suffering. The avoidance of struggle is a struggle. The denial of failure is a failure. Hiding what is shameful is itself a form of shame. Pain is an inextricable thread in the fabric of life, and to tear it out is not only impossible but destructive: attempting to tear it out unravels everything else with it.

To try to avoid pain is to give too much thinking about pain. In contrast, if you’re able to not give too much thinking about the pain, you become unstoppable.

Like the road not taken, it was the issues not given too much thinking that made all the difference.

Daily Dose of Positivity: Be honest in confronting your pain, fear & anxiety

Very few animals on earth have the ability to at least think, but we humans have the luxury of being able to have thoughts about our thoughts.

We feel bad about feeling bad. We feel guilty for feeling guilty.

George Orwell said that to see what’s in front of one’s nose requires a constant struggle. Well, the solution to our stress and anxiety is right there in front of our noses.

 Because there’s an infinite amount of things we can now see or know, there are also an infinite number of ways we can discover that we don’t measure up, that we’re not good enough, that things aren’t as great as they could be. And this rips us apart inside.

The desire for more positive experience is itself a negative experience. And, paradoxically, the acceptance of one’s negative experience is itself a positive experience.

Pursuing something only reinforces the fact that you lack it in the first place. The more you desperately want to be rich, the more poor and unworthy you feel, regardless of how much money you actually make.

The more you desperately want to be happy and loved, the lonelier and more afraid you become, regardless of those who surround you. The more you want to be spiritually enlightened, the more self-centered and shallow you become in trying to get there.

As the existential philosopher Albert Camus said 

“You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life.”

Ever notice that sometimes when you care less about something, you do better at it?

Being open with your insecurities paradoxically makes you more confident and charismatic around others. The pain of honest confrontation is what generates the greatest trust and respect in your relationships. Suffering through your fears and anxieties is what allows you to build courage and perseverance. Seriously, I could keep going, but you get the point.

Everything worthwhile in life is won through overcoming the associated negative experience.

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Daily Dose of Positivity: Thinking more or less

Thinking too much about more things at a time is good for business. While there’s nothing wrong with good business, the problem is that thinking too much about more things at a time is bad for your mental health. It causes you to become overly attached to the superficial and fake, to dedicate your life to chasing a mirage of happiness and satisfaction.

The key to a good life is not thinking too much about more things at a time; it’s thinking about fewer things at a time, thinking about only what is true and immediate and important.

Daily Dose of Positivity: Making difference through Response

Every time you choose a response instead of reacting, you move closer to freedom.

Impulsive reactions give way to conflicts; mindful responses give way to understanding.

People do not want an instantaneous reply, they want the best reply. Pause and choose it so that you need not regret it later.

“Leadership is about making others better as a result of your presence and making sure that impact lasts in your absence.” – Sheryl Sandberg

Daily Dose of Positivity : Must the end of life be the worst part? Can it be made the best?

At 53, Eugene O'Kelly was in the full swing of life. Chairman and CEO of KPMG, one of the largest US accounting firms, he enjoyed a successful career and drew happiness from his wife, children, family, and close friends. He was thinking ahead: the next business trip, the firm's continued success, weekend plans with his wife, his daughter's first day of eighth grade. 

Then in May 2005, Gene was diagnosed with late-stage brain cancer and given three to six months to live.

O’Kelly resigned from KPMG and began planning his death as rigorously as he planned his life, managing the logistics of settling his estate and the spiritual work of coming to terms with his “transition,” as he called it. He ultimately chronicled that final leg of his journey in a bestselling book, Chasing Daylight

O’Kelly put great care into creating “perfect moments” with the people he valued most. He made each of these moments personal and memorable, with the understanding it would be the last time he would see that person. 

• Everything changes in an instant. Don’t wait for the “right moment”.
• Remove negative energy from your life. Resolve to be happy, not “right”.
• Recognize what is most important.

Eugene died on September 10, 2005 of terminal brain cancer.

At least Kelly did know when he would die! But many of us don’t have that luxury. Therefore, it is more important that we live each moment in our life meaningfully.