The Power of Positivity: Three Lessons, One?Truth

Is your glass half-empty or half-full? Are circumstances, obstacles or opinions standing in your way? Learn from these three stories, that reveal one truth about positive thinking.

Positive thinking does not mean ignoring realities, instead it means approaching things in a constructive and pro-active manner. With each crisis, situation or obstacle that confronts us, we as leaders have a choice. What choice will you make?

01: Your beliefs can hold you back or empower you.

A man walking through an elephant camp, observed that the elephants were not kept in cages or held by chains. All that was holding them back, was a rope tied to one of their legs. He wondered, with all their strength why don’t the elephants simply break the rope and escape? But, it seemed as if they did not try to at all. 

Just then a elephant trainer walked by and the man asked him why this was the case. The trainer explained “when the elephants are young and much smaller we use the same size rope to tie them down. As they grow up, they are conditioned to believe they cannot escape. They believe the rope can still hold them, so they never try to break free.”

Are you letting your beliefs, history, past experiences, dictate what you do with your future? Remember positive beliefs can be just as powerful. Instead of being the shackles that holds you back, your beliefs can become the fuel that propels you forth. 

02: The biggest obstacle in your path may be your biggest opportunity.

An ancient kingdom was ruled by a wise king. One day he decided to place a large boulder on the most frequently used path in the kingdom. Many people simply walked around the boulder, many others complained, and some even blamed the king for the poor condition of the roads. 

Finally a vegetable vendor came along with his load of vegetables. When he reached the boulder, he laid down his burden and tried to push the boulder off the road. It took a lot of effort, but he finally succeeded. To his surprise, below where the boulder once was, he found a large pouch filled with gold coins, a treasure beyond his wildest dreams.

Do the obstacles in your path seem insurmountable? Sometimes the easy option is to walk around obstacles or complain about circumstances. Remember, every obstacle presents an opportunity. Your willingness to approach obstacles with positivity could result in rewards beyond your imagination.

03: Someone else’s opinion of you, does not have to become your reality

A group of frogs was traveling through a deep forest. Suddenly, two of them fell into a deep pit. The other frogs crowded around the pit to assess the situation. They saw how deep it was and told the two frogs that there was no hope. The two frogs decided to ignore what the others were saying and decided to try to climb and jump out.

Eventually, one of the frogs gave up, falling to his death. The other frog continued to climb and jump as hard as he could. The other frogs yelled at him to stop, lest he falls as well. Instead he jumped harder and finally made it out. When he got out, the other frogs asked, “Did you not hear us?” The frog explained to them that he was deaf. He thought they were encouraging him the whole time.

Are you letting criticism or fear of failure stand in your way? In the pursuit of our goals, aspirations, ambitions, dreams, we will all face failure, we may fall. Remember that falling does not define us. What defines us is how we rise after we fall. 

The One Truth: The positive thinker sees the invisible, feels the intangible, achieves the impossible [Winston Churchill]

As leaders we will face situations that require us to break the chains of the past to re-imagine the future. We may come across incredible opportunities disguised as insurmountable obstacles. Undoubtedly we will face criticism and encounter failure. The one truth that will hold us in good stead is how we respond to these situations and the actions we choose. Faced with your next challenge, approach it with positivity and the results may surprise you.

Originally published April 05, 2020 on Medium.com

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About the author: After having worked with Fortune 500 companies, real estate developers and the public sector across the Americas and emerging markets in Asia Pacific, Ram Srinivasan is currently Managing Director with JLL’s Consulting practice and was previously a Vice President with Deloitte Canada’s Real Estate and Infrastructure Advisory Practice.

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