Marcel Legros - Play the Game of Life

Interested in being happier and more successful? We can all learn a lesson from an episode of TV’s “Star Trek” that gets in under our radar and teaches us the importance of focusing on the positive.

In one episode, the crew lands on a vacation destination planet where they could create any reality they wanted, just by thinking about it. At first they have a great time creating wonderful things, but gradually become bored and tired and begin to focus on negative things, which creates negative situations for their reality there. Many of us run our lives the same way, by starting out focusing on the things we want, but then shift our focus to what we don’t want and our lives turns out as badly as the “Star Trek” crew’s in that episode.

So how do you focus on the positive? You need to make a decision to focus on the positive, it doesn’t just happen. As a motivational expert, I stress the importance of having goals to guide your life and “focusing on the positive” should be one of them.

People attending my seminars are surprised when I tell them to announce to the people they are in contact with that you intend to focus on the positive. My personal experience with this is that the reactions you receive will run the gamut from total acceptance to almost outright hostility. I advise you not to let the reaction of others to affect your own thoughts and behavior. By announcing to the world that you intend to focus on the positive, you reinforce your decision by putting yourself on notice and encouraging other people to give feedback on how you are doing regarding being positive.

Scientific research can help you take full advantage of a positive focus to make decisions. Research shows that we tend to become happier as we move through the day. Our mood is generally lowest when we wake then peaks at noon, then declines till four in the afternoon, and then begins to build to its highest point of the day around 10 PM. So use those peak times to make plans, set goals, tackle hard jobs, etc. Make decisions when you are the most upbeat during the day in order to reduce the negatives in your life from pulling you back.

It also helps to realize that you can only control yourself, you can’t control things like the weather, things that other people do or don’t do, mechanical failures and so on. Focusing only on what you can control takes a lot of pressure off you and leads to greater happiness.

Business and Life Coach Theresa A Smith spends time having her clients become very clear about what they want of life and then helping them focus heavily on pursuing the steps needed to attain that life. She finds knowing what you want out of life and then working towards it is the number one step her clients can take to give them long lasting happiness.

I publish a free daily One Minute Motivator via email and YouTube and in a recent one I said,

“Every day we have a choice. We can choose to focus on negative thoughts that leave us feeling insecure, frightened and cynical or we can choose to focus on positive thoughts that empower us and fill us with a sense of optimism about our world and our role in it. What type of thoughts we choose to focus on, grow stronger, and the other type will grow weaker. Make the choice to focus on the positive, and you will find it gets easier the longer you do it.”

In my book, “Sixty Seconds To Success,” I make a similar point.

“Your focus is your future. You get what you focus on. You can focus on the things that will move you and your projects ahead, or you can focus on things that will not. Focus brings all your power together and enables you to do things in one area that you couldn’t do without it. Picture yourself achieving your goals, and your chances of achieving them go up dramatically. Believe it and you’ll see it.

What you think about on a daily basis is what your future will be like. Tibetan monks believe that if you want to know your future, look at what you’re doing right now. Everything we do now affects what will happen next. Our life’s a chain of now’s and all the things we did in those now’s. Now is what counts and now is what will make your future.”

The two worlds are there for each of us to choose which to live in. Choose the world of your dreams and focus on the positive in your life - it’s as close as your next thought- and before long your dream will be your reality.

Edward W. Smith brings the One Minute Motivators to you. Mr. Smith is the author of Sixty Seconds To Success, the Producer/Host of the Bright Moment cable TV show, is President of The Bright Moment Seminars, and a motivational speaker.