How important is positive thinking in the ability to achieve success? What about manifestation – does that work? There are tons of articles out there that talk about the power of positivity and of manifesting the things you want in life. I’m sure you’ve seen them and probably are thinking that it’s a beautiful theory, but it doesn’t make any logical sense – especially the manifestation part. How in the world can you really believe that you’ve already accomplished or received something that clearly you haven’t? I get it, but I also see so much value in these beliefs. Let me explain.

Have you ever spent time with someone and left their presence feeling completely depleted? Likely they were on a roll of negativity, complaining about everything under the sun. Try as you might, you couldn’t say anything to coax them into finding anything positive to say and so you listened and literally absorbed all of their negativity until you were able to escape them. Now, friends let friends vent, that’s what we do and we’ve all been there. I’m talking about the people we know who are always negative and complaining and never happy – at least not unless they’re complaining. The person with chronic negativity.

Chances are, you left their company not in a very good mood and the next person you met up with got laden with the negativity that the last person dumped all over you. It’s hard to shake! Negativity is like a virus; it spreads and can infect you and impact everyone in your world. We all get into moods, but I’m talking about extremes. I was one of these people at one point in life and it was about my job. I hated it, and at the same time I couldn’t stop talking about it, aka complaining. My poor husband patiently listened to me drone on for months until he lost it one night. He pointed the honest truth out to me, that I was only happy 2 nights a week – Friday and Saturday. Every other night all I did was be negative and complain and he told me he wasn’t going to listen to it anymore. Sounds kinda harsh, right? Well maybe, but it needed to be said and the truth was, I couldn’t stand myself either! Being negative wasn’t helping, it was stalling me. Why did I stay in this state for so long? I’m not sure now but looking back it was just ridiculous. If I had to explain, I would say that honestly I was probably scared of the change that would mean. After all, I knew what to expect there and the unknown, well – what if it’s worse? That sounds like insanity and likely is the threshold.

There is good news though – positivity can also be spread. As much as hanging out with the negative folks can bring you down, hanging out with positive people can be extremely uplifting and motivating. I have a friend who is a successful entrepreneur. Every time I spend time with her, I leave her company feeling like the sky’s the limit and that if I visualize success for my business or life, that I can have it. I literally feel reenergized about everything and motivated. I purposely connect with her at least once a week because it keeps me in the frame of mind I need and frankly prefer. 

Positivity feels better. Like negativity it also spreads, but it’s incredibly healing. If I’m a little down, spending time with a positive person lifts me up, but a negative one will help me dig the hole I want to crawl into. When I spend time with positive people, I bring that home to my family too. My husband so appreciates that as you can imagine.

Again, I know that people have bad days and so do I. Not every day will you find me upbeat and crazy positive, but I do try to check myself so that it doesn’t linger. Go ahead and have your negative gripey, pity party, PO’d day, but don’t let it rule you. Don’t give it more power than it deserves and don’t let it be your daily existence.

Manifestation a positive activity that uses visualization and the power of belief. When people manifest, they visualize and believe that whatever it is that they want, they already have. They visualize every aspect of it, what life is like, where they are, who they’re with, what they’re eating, wearing, etc. They make this their daily practice until whatever they want has manifested. Sounds pretty easy, but I don’t see it that way – probably because I have trouble sticking with it. I also started a gratitude journal, which is also a useful tool for positivity and manifesting. I’m not as consistent as I should be with it, but I can pick it up at any time and write something every day. The act of writing things down is not required, by the way, but if you’re visual and it’s helpful in helping you create the habit and the thoughts, it can be a useful tool.

Now, I don’t know if manifesting works all of the time, but I’m not going to discount something just because I personally don’t think all my manifesting have dreams come true. The practice is a positive activity and that’s always something good for your life – much more productive than negativity. I would like to think that the small successes are part of the chain of events that lead to the ultimate goal of what you want – or what you think you want. If it works like positivity and negativity in that “like attracts like”, I’m all in!

J