Positively Imperfect

I am a very positive person—normally. In fact, I am always the one preaching to my friends about how important it is to stay positive. (They love that.)

But today, my negativity got the better of me. As the receptionist in the movie “Office Space” said, “Sounds like someone’s got a case of the Mondays!” I want to punch that lady.

And at 6 PM, after an entire day of wallowing in worry and negativity, I thought, “Why am I doing this? I tell my friends all the time about how important it is to stay positive, and hear I am, Miss Negative Nancy, all day today! How can I be such a hypocrite?”

And then I remembered: I’m not perfect!

And then I thought, “That’s right! I’m not perfect! It’s okay that I was like this today, because I have the rest of my life (and perhaps several more lives) to try to overcome my negativity.”

And that thought changed my entire attitude around. What a blessing it is to remember that I’m not perfect! Now I can go forward and be positive again. There’s no point in dwelling on past negativity—that would just make me more negative!

Also, I really believe in the concept that “what you put out there (to the universe) comes back to you.” I believe this is especially true of our thoughts.

So for example, if you kept thinking, “People aren’t very helpful to me” or “People don’t respect me,” what do you think would happen? Well (I believe), then people won’t be helpful to you or respect you!

One of my good friends is seeing this concept work for her as she tries to improve her self-esteem. Every day, she’s been telling herself, “I love myself, and I’m beautiful.” This has been especially difficult for her, as she often sees herself as unworthy of love and unattractive (neither of which is true in the least!); However, today she was substitute teaching at a high school, and she could hear the kids whispering about how pretty she was. One of them even gathered up his courage and said straight to her face, “I just wanted to say that you’re really pretty!” Isn’t that wonderful?

So here are some thoughts that I’m going to try to think every day—we’ll see if they work!

 People are very helpful to me.
 People respect me.
 People compliment me often.
 I am losing weight every day, no matter what I eat.
 I am very organized and never lose anything.
 Iwanski loves doing housework and is obsessive about making sure the house is clean.
 I am very lucky and will win the lottery soon.

Well, a girl can dream, can’t she?