The Power Of Positive Thinking

A lot of us make up our mind whether we’re going to like or dislike something before we ever experience whatever it is.

Be honest with yourself for a minute. As a kid, you made a lot of judgement calls about various foods based on their names or what they looked like or whether or not someone else like them. I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to like rhubarb because it has such a funny name and all the cartoon characters such didn’t think liver or Brussels sprouts were a good idea. Spinach looked a lot like seaweed to me. I didn’t dare try sour cream until college.

We made up our minds about who we were going to be friends with to based on how they looked or acted and it took a lot to change those initial impressions. We probably even still do that, even if we don’t want to admit it.

Heck, we have pre-judgements about whether we’re going to like a movie, a game, a hobby, a book, a television show, a store, a house, a vacation spot, a blog, a blog post, a topic of conversation, a pet, an afternoon’s activity, a date, a church, a religion, a culture, social class, a gender, a school, a class, a political group, a political candidate, a boss, a job, a career, a diet, a lifestyle, a fashion, any given anything… We can’t escape it. It’s in our nature no matter how hard we try to be open-minded.

So, what am I saying? Give up on open-mindedness and accept the negative pre-judgements with the postive pre-judgements?

Nope.

I’ve been thinking quite a bit about this lately. I’m kind of on new “quest for a life worth living.” It’s part of the idea of not letting my depression define me and part of that is realizing that there is power in positive thinking. I know it’s cliché, but there’s some truth in clichés; that’s how they got repeated so often they became cliché.

Anyway, I got to thinking about the first time I was invited to go out to eat sushi.  It was a weird time in my life.  I was having a difficult “home life” with my roommate and I really needed to be adventurous to feel special, different, and amazing.  Right away, I decided I was going to love sushi.  At the time, I didn’t think I knew anyone who liked sushi.  And I did love sushi.  I still do.  It’s one of my favorite foods even now over a decade later.

I still don’t like rhubarb, liver, or Brussels sprouts.  Raw spinach and spinach cooked into things is o.k.

But that’s my point.  I made up my mind right away that I was going to like it and so I did.  There’s power in positive thinking.  There’s also power in negative thinking.  Think of all the things I’ve missed out on because I made up my mind to not like without giving it a chance.

I’m going to make more of an effort to think positively about the opportunities out there and give new things and people a real chance.

What pre-judgements have you made that you wish you hadn’t?

Tagged as: depression, negative thinking, positive thinking