How to Make Positive Thinking Work

Positive Thinking, by itself, isn’t much, and it’s certainly not sufficient. Positive thinking without constructive visualization and consistent action/adaptation is like pizza without sauce, and cheese, and toppings, and an oven, and someone skilled to make the pizza and bake, and slice, it — it’s just dough.

Positive thinking when combined with vivid and emotionally charged visualization of desired results and accompanying challenges, and consistent action, reflection and adaptation is a very potent combination. But yes, just sitting on the couch thinking positive thoughts will not amount to much of anything.

So, what it comes down to is, given the choice between combining positive thinking and visualization, consistent action/learning/adaptation or negative thinking with the aforementioned, which makes sense? Put another way, would you want pizza sauce, cheese, pepperoni (or your fav topping) with mold-ridden, off-smelling pizza dough? Of course not, it takes high quality, fresh ingredients — from the dough to the toppings — to make a great pizza.

Let’s apply this:

• are you noticing and managing your thoughts effectively, consistently returning to positive, resourceful thoughts?
• are you taking the time visualize new or challenging tasks, imagining how you’ll overcome challenges and marshal strengths and resources?
• are you taking consistent action, all the while taking time to reflect on what has worked, and what hasn’t — and making the changes necessary?

Those are the Big Three of Life. If you’re not doing them, you’re missing out on what life has to offer you. Change that. Do the Big Three more, start small if necessary, but start Now.