Be a positive force!

This day marks a kind of a branch-out for me. I’ve written some posts about productivity and stuff, but so far I have regarded them as random musings and no more. However, after coming up with the idea for my first food-post, I realized they are not really random at all. Instead, they are plainly some of my ideas about how life should be lived. Thus, quite a many of my ramblings have now been moved under the lifestyle category, and this post will fall there as well. And this, finally, brings us to today’s topic: thinking and being positive.

I know, it’s a cliché.

And it’s a cliché for precisely one reason.

It works.

It really does, for many reasons. That much is quite obvious.

But for a change, let’s focus on the how instead of the why.

Positive how-not-to

I have no idea if you follow any academic social media outlets. I’ll nevertheless assume that you have at least occasionally glanced at them.

They are not very positive, are they? Lack of funding, uncertainty in getting a tenure, procrastination and guilt.

Budget cuts.

Reviewer 2.

Trust me, I KNOW! I also occasionally face the same problems, I really do.

But that does not mean I want to read about them from every possible outlet.

A little rambling can be therapeutic. Think of the time you really needed and had that afterwork beer with friends. Yes, it can be that good.

However, constant whining is a completely different thing.

You have probably also heard the second cliché of today, about everybody fighting their own wars. Well I don’t want to hear about your casualty reports! Few people do.

Positive how-to

I want to read about your armoured columns making a colossal breakthrough! Crushing your enemies! Seeing them driven before you! The whole Conan!

Nothing stirs up my own in-the-trenches, all-quiet-on-the-Western-front grit like that does, short of an actual decisive victory of my own!

Okay, the battle metaphor has definitely run its course by now, but you get the point. It’s generally nicer to read about success than failure.

You feel okay, you read good, you feel good. You feel good, you do good, you feel better.

Can’t make it much simpler than that. Success breed success, and success even tends to diffuse into you from outside sources.

So read positive stuff! And if you write, keep that positive too. Be a part of the solution and so on.

And the point to rule them all: don’t be a whiny joy-killer around people. Nobody likes them.

Balance how-to

Earlier, I have briefly touched upon the topic of maintaining a proper balance in your life. Needless to say, it also applies here. Perhaps more so than ever.

There are legitimate times for not being a beacon of joy for all mankind. To deny that would mean denying your very humanity. Not a good thing at all.

But keep those times brief. As often, a 80-20 ratio between funny and sad is a good starting point.

And that division can be applied on several scales. It’s okay to spend a few minutes of each working-hour being super-ripshit-pissed at some nasty programming bug that just won’t reveal itself no matter how you try. I know I do that.

And it’s also okay to have a few weeks per year when you are stressed, the obstacles pile on, you can’t sleep, and so on. Weeks when just coping is the main goal, and all higher aspirations will have to take a back seat.

And it might happen that once or twice in your life a major loss or disease or setback completely derails you. Think death, cancer, bankruptcy. You don’t want to, but it can still happen. That’s life.

My point is, keep grief, fear, and stress to their natural habitats, where they can be healthy and fulfill their natural function. Don’t let them overtake your life.

The rest of the time, kick ass and let everybody know.

P.S.

Keep whiny music to that 20% section I described before. Preferably smaller. If your music absolutely has to be negative in tone and lyrics, at least keep it otherwise manly. A good example is the song Qaqortoq by Raubtier.

Although the song is about the narrator dying on the freezing cold glaciers of Greenland, in the month-long near-total darkness of the polar night…that’s really not what my post was about, is it? The song is awesome. It’s about being defiant to the end. Facing the sometimes-inevitable defeat with your head held high. As you should.

Dead Armour (or Anti-Tank, whichever way you want to put it), by the 40k-esque Bolt Thrower, fits almost the same description.

“Outgunned, outnumbered
Though never outclassed.”

Be a positive force!