When I first discovered blogging 8 years ago, I had no clue what it was or why everyone was raving about it. I only knew that everyone was doing it. I found out later what it was and my reaction was,

“That’s it?”

To me, writing about personal stuff online seemed like nonsense. However I realized there was a common theme among bloggers, which was channeling as much emotional content – most of it being negative – into their blog as possible.

In the past I used to come across blogs that contained nothing but pure, unfiltered, soapbox venting. Because of the proliferation of emotionally charged blogs, I would go in with the mindset of expecting to read about the latest gossip in my circle of friends or hearing about the guy who lost his foot in a meat grinder.

I believe this is just another form of mass consumerism for the mind.

There are already too many types of these of stories to go around, so i’ve decided to abandon that trend and start a whole new one, which I call blogging for positivity.

My belief is that if you blog for positivity, it will inspire creativity, innovation, and courage in yourself, and those attributes are key when trying to do something you didn’t believe was previously possible.

As I mentioned in my introductory post, I am headed in a completely new direction in my life, and have given myself a more positive frame of mind. Like everyone else, I have my off days, but i’ve already noticed some drastic changes in my overall demeanor in just a few weeks since starting this blog.

I would like to highlight specific things that I am deeply grateful for that have helped me produce this new positive outlook.

Failure

Failure? How can this be a positive? I think failure is undeserved of the negative press it receives. People look down on failure. No one wants to be that person who always ends up upside down instead of right side up. Failure and success are opposites, yet one can not come to pass without the other. Without failure, success wouldn’t be possible.

I can not count how many times that after experiencing a big letdown, i’ve followed up with an even bigger success. I attribute this to something called expected value, which I define as what I expect to gain in life by doing things I think brings positive value.

Recently, I allowed my life situation to dictate my life’s expected value. (Learn more about expected value in life Here from Kevin’s blog Investitwisely). I convinced myself that having less money lowered expected value. Also, that owning more stuff increased expected value. I later discovered that those two statements are completely and utterly, false.

It is important not to allow failure or even the prospect of failure keep you from achieving your dreams. Let failure build you up to achieve even greater things.

Healthy mind

Having a mind devoid of mental clutter has helped me tremendously in being able achieve things I didn’t think were possible. I am now much better at preventing negative thoughts from entering into my mind.

Things I might have said in the past were, “It is what it is” or “That’s life”. These are phrases that should be avoided like the Plague. There is an implication there that you are not directly in charge of your life. By saying these things, you don’t give yourself odds to succeed, and instead are doomed to fail. If this is something you say frequently, Stop! You run a better chance at winning the lottery than achieving your life’s goals with this mantra.

A good way to increase the flow of positive energy is through reading about real success stories from real people who share similar life philosophies. Along with my own educational reading, I try to read at least 1 inspirational story a day about someone who is living exactly how they want their life to be.

Reading fills my mind with endless new possibilities. It isn’t a coincidence that whenever I get a killer new idea or burst of energy, it came after reading an article or book.

Feeding negative thought patterns is one of the worst things a person can do and is a sure way to remain in perpetual listlessness.

Google

I can not ignore the effect that Google has had on my life. Without it, I wouldn’t have been able to create this website, share my crazy ideas, fix a leaky faucet, or the dozens of other things i’ve been able to do that I couldn’t do before.

Google is a gateway to learning if used correctly. Some times we don’t always find the answers we’re looking for, but chances are that you will be closer to the answer than you were before.

I also have to mention the distinction between “Google” and “the internet”. A good analogy comes from the movie the Matrix. If the internet is the Matrix, then Google is the operator who scours the Matrix for ways to simplify it for Neo (you).

If you can harness the power of Google, a limitless amount of resources and money can be had. The internet itself is useless without being able to weed through all the junk. Someone who is a master at Googling can literally manipulate the flow of information as they see fit, and that is a powerful tool indeed.

You guys!

I am grateful to everyone for their continued support as I continue to knock down mental barriers and continue on the journey towards self-discovery. The vast majority of feedack i’ve received so far has been positive. Even though I may be called out on some of my ideas, I value all of the constructive feedback and look forward to dissecting my beliefs with the people I meet.

One of the ways to grow as an individuals is through fellowship, and one of the best ways to achieve success is seeking out what like-minded people have done to bring meaning to their lives.

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