Mr. Brightside

What good will being pessimistic do for you?

When has being negative ever helped you succeed?

When things suck, look for the good in your situation. There is always a sliver of hope in a sea of despair that when clutched shines out the darkest moments. 

I know it’s hard to be positive when you’re in the middle of things and everything is crumbling around you like a smushed cake donut, but positive is the way out.

Those insufferable optimistic people are usually the happiest and most fulfilled out there afterall.

Like anything else, optimism is a habit. It takes practice. It’s looking at reality and facing it head-on. It’s a genuine smile in the face of your fear. It’s words of encouragement to a friend or colleague when things are dreary. It’s believing in yourself that you can do this, that you can make a difference.

Positivity is a habit we cultivate and grow, not something we are born with.

Stay BOLD, Keep Pursing,
— Josh Waggoner

IG: @Renaissance.Life

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Related Insights

“Once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, you’ll start having positive results.” — Willie Nelson

“Find a place inside where there’s joy, and the joy will burn out the pain.” — Joseph Campbell

“Positive thinking will let you do everything better than negative thinking will.” — Zig Ziglar

A Cure For Despair

One cure for despair is through action.

Wallowing in worry, anxiety, and despair won’t bring us relief.

We must lose ourselves in doing.

Stop living for despair — live for action.

There’s nothing quite like the feeling of making progress on something you love.

Action on what’s important to us gives us energy.

Action doesn’t leave room for despair to attach itself to us.

It can’t hold on to our momentum, It’s claws dull from our steps. 

related:

How to Stop Worrying And Start Living by Dale Carnegie.

“I’m too busy. I have no time for worry.” — Winston Churchill

“The secret of being miserable is to have the leisure to bother about whether you are happy or not.” — George Bernard Shaw

Let it Go

Negative thoughts lead to negative outcomes and actions.

fearing failure leads us to fail, because

the fear itself is holding us back from

what we need to do (and are to scared to do) to succeed.

In other words, 

We fail because we fear.

(I fear the fear of failure because the fear of fear of failure makes me fail)

Same with stress, worry, anxiety.. we tend to stress about stress, and worry about worry (which is a spiraling cycle) and we get in our own way of where we want to go.

It’s like we are in a car, with a destination in mind, yet we have one foot on the gas and the other on the brakes. We may be moving but there’s friction. Friction that we cause.

We are unable to succeed because we’ve locked ourselves in a cage that we’ve built.

A cage of assumptions, falsehoods and in-action.

The great relief is 

we have the key to unlock our cages. We can take our foot off the brakes.

We have to let it go.

And open ourselves up to the unknown.

And believe in the idea that

our thoughts direct our actions.

We are going to fail, and get lost, and

experience all the bumps on the road to achievement and brilliance. And that’s okay, because we’ve let it go. We know what’s important, and we’re moving forward.

related:

How to Stop Worrying and Start Living — Dale Carnegie

“People have a hard time letting go of their suffering. Out of a fear of the unknown, they prefer suffering that is familiar.” — Thich Nhat Hanh

“Letting go give us freedom, and freedom is the only condition for happiness.” — Thich Nhat Hanh

How to Deal with Failure with James Altucher

#KeepPursuing,
xoxo Josh Waggoner

‘Brevity is the soul of wit.’  Email me your thoughts on this post. Can you reduce the essential idea further?