Positive thinking part 1: Focusing what is right

We have heard and read a lot about positive thinking. It is the topic of choice for many motivational speakers and writers. Often they would speak and write with full dedication and emotion to reflect the meaning of positive thinking. So, one may think there is really nothing more for me to write because I am running out of content. Yeah, I would agree if I am stuck half way or delay my write up or even scrap it entirely and will think of another topic which not many of us have heard. To get some fresh thoughts on how I can approach the topic, I went for a 30mins walk just to psychic my mind, and think positive about writing this blog and looking forward to what is right to get my ideas here.
I have in mind to write 5 parts in my positive thinking blog. This is the first part which is going to be most difficult, I think, because this is the part that I have to gather lots of momentum to begin and completing the rest. From here on I will have to focus on doing what is right to complete all 5 parts within an estimated time frame of about 5 days.
I really can’t recall when did I start to inculcate positive thinking mindset as my habit. I was brought up in a small town that was once regarded as “sleeping hollow” of Malaysia. There nothing much happening in the town except for a few housewives taking their own sweet time walking to the wet market in the morning. There was not much positive things happening, everybody were feeling like the birds, the bees and the trees; letting the days passed by. I guess that sort of life was regarded as being positive in a sense because everybody was minding their own business.
One thing I’d always remember when I was a kid was, my mother always bragged about me being clever to the neighbors and her friends. I'd guess most mothers do. She may have other reasons though, like, flattering me so that I could help her with her daily chores without complaining. The most difficult part for me was to live up to the expectation that she had, like proving to the neighbors that I got good grades in school. Even when I was playing with my friends I had to be good at the games that we were playing rather than letting her down. Gradually, after many years of making it a habit, it had become a part of me that I had to focus on what was right every time. Sometime during my childhood, I think, I did make a decision to start looking at things around me positively by doing what was right for every difficult situation I encountered.
How can we do what is right in a problematic situation? There are five simple rules that we have to adhere in order to focus on doing what is right for any given problematic situations. The rules of this type of mindset are:-

Rule 1
Do not decide alone on how to deal with the situation. As you might have read from my earlier blog in which I indicated that there is an 80% chance that your decision might go wrong. Ask for a second or may be a third opinion before deciding on the course of actions. With all information at hand you can start believing in your guts to act on the situations. This rule requires you to focus on the resources and information you have gathered for the situation.

Rule 2
Getting right at the first attempt is always crucial in solving all problematic situations. By not getting the correct solution the first time can have a led down effect which can be devastating on your next subsequence trials. So, the rule is, to breakdown the problems into sub-category and breaking down future into elemental contributors then scrutinize each element thoroughly. One very popular method of scrutinizing that has proven track record is by asking the question “why” at every answer you got until the root causes surfaced out. This might look difficult but once you get the hang of it, it will be a piece of cake. Once the root causes are known, you can table out 2 or 3 action plans and begin your quest for solutions taking the one which promises good return.

Rule 3
The rule here is to keep focusing on the progress of the action plan that you have taken. All measurements must be made here, not to forget the comparison with some know standards. Quantifying each finding in terms of money or any other equivalent measures will help you knowing where you stand and also in making corrections to your actions. Hence, the chances for you to go wrong are totally eliminated. This rule will shunt out the fears of making the wrong course of action and gives you the confidence and motivation to achieve even further than expected.

Rule 4
You must not let your concentration on focusing the right things gets carried away on a different course or disrupted even for a brief moment. Reflecting on the results you have gotten at regular intervals and compare them with your expectation will make you focus deeper into the situation. Strict adhere to this rule will lead you in keeping a constant input to your subconscious mind suggesting on what is right. The effect of this continuous input to your subconscious mind can change your mindset towards focus what is right than what is not right.

Rule 5
The final rule is to engage your subconscious mind on continuing your quest in the subconscious level. Once you are able to engage the subconscious mind, you are in the auto-pilot state of near perfection. By do so; you are in the state where your subconscious mind is in fact controlling the course of the entire action plan. This is the ultimate goal of focusing what is right.

We have gone through the first part of positive thinking that calls for focusing what is right in every situation that crosses our path. Take for example, you got an important sales appointment tomorrow at 8am. So then the question is; what is right for you to do to in order to get your product or service sold to the prospect?

The recent tragic earthquake in Sichuan Province, China revealed many miraculous survival stories told by the survivors who were mainly school children. Stories on how they did the right thing to eliminate their fears in the dark under the rumbles of concrete blocks that enclosed them from the outside world while waiting for help. One child decided to sing some songs that were taught in school and in places where there was a little light one of the children decided to draw pictures. They acted positively to drive away the fear of death and by these acts they brought back their feeling of living as normal although they were in darkness and in pain. These children taught us how to live a life of positive thinking through focusing and doing what is right.