The Power of Positivity
The power of positivity is a phrase that I hear getting thrown around a lot. To be honest I have never put a whole lot of stock into it. I thought the phrase was a little overused and cliché. It wasn’t until a random trip to Walmart with a good friend of mine named Ivan that I finally discovered the full value of this phrase. Ivan is a cowboy kid from South Dakota he stands about 6’5” and has earned the nickname “Creature”. One time I ran out of soap and asked Creature if he would like to go to Walmart and pick up some. I had driven around with him before and every time we had gone somewhere he would always wave as big as he could at everyone we passed. He would roll down my windows lean out and give a big “HELLO” to anyone and everyone walking down the street. After being embarrassed several times, I finally asked him “Ivan why do you do that”.
He sat back in my passenger seat and told me about a story he read one time. The story was about a man who lived in San Francisco. This man had lived a rough life and had decided to commit suicide by jumping off the Golden Gate bridge. Before walking toward the bridge, he wrote a note. In this note he said that on his walk if a single person was nice, said hello, or so much as waved to him he would turn around and go home. Apparently, no body interacted positively with him because he went through with his promise. So, Ivan told me now he does his best to make everyone he sees day a little better. This stopped me dead in my tracks and really caused me to change my entire way of thinking, and ever since then I do my best to share a positive attitude.
The thing about positivity is that it’s contagious and the more of it that you exert the more people around you will reciprocate that same positive energy. Positivity isn’t always natural, and that’s okay there are a lot things that take practice and time. Often negative attitudes blind us to a whole world of possibilities. I am a naturally pessimistic person, so it takes a lot of practice and work to improve my mindset. It has taken a long time to change my thinking from “what could go wrong” to “what could go right”.
I think we should all take a lesson from my buddy Ivan and try to brighten someone’s day.
Eric Peterson
2021-2022 State Secretary