The Positive Dog
by Jon Gordon
– Benefits of being positive:
1. Positive people outlive negative people.
2. A positive environment is much easier and better to work at.
3. Positive sales people sell more than pessimistic salesmen.
4. Positive leaders are able to make better decisions under pressure.
5. Marriages are more likely to survive when a couple uses 5 to 1 ratio of positive words rather than 1 to 1.
6. Positive people face problems with a positive outlook and are more healthy and likely to get through problems.
7. Positive people have a broader perspective and can see the big picture whereas negative people have a more narrow perspective and cannot see but one piece.
8. Positive thoughts and emotions counter negative thoughts and emotions. You cannot be positive and stressed at the same time.
9. Positive thoughts help athletes perform at a higher level.
10. Positive people have more friends which equals longevity in life as well as happiness.
11. Positive leaders are more likely to have followers, pay raises, and more success than those that are not positive.
– The cost of being negative:
1. 90% of doctors visits are connected to stress.
2. Negative employees scare off for good more customers.
3. At work, too many negative interactions can hurt the cause of the team.
4. Activity affects the morale, performance and effectiveness of a team.
5. A negative person can create a miserable office environment for everybody else.
6. One study shows that 90% of anxiety at work is created by the 5% of negative people at work.
7. Negative emotions are connected to shorter lifespan.
8. Negative emotions increase the chances of heart attacks and strokes.
9. Negativity is associated with worse health, more anxiety and less strength.
10. Negative people have fewer friends.
– We don’t base life off of reality rather off of our perspective of reality
– Practice gratitude every day and you will see the world through eyes of gratitude.
– How you define the world is how you see the world.
– Change your words and it will change your outlook:
• Say you get to instead of have to.
• Say blessed instead of stressed. Name three things you are thankful for the feel stressed it will change the way you feel.
• Turn complaints into solutions. Tell yourself that you will not complain unless you find one or two solutions to your complaints. Turn every negative situation into something positive.
– Feed the positive dog instead of the negative dog.
– Choose faith instead of fear. Anger, jealousy, and complaining are all rooted in fear. The antidote to fear is faith. Fear and faith both believe in the future, but fear believes in a negative future and faith believes in a positive future.
– Faith will help you turn challenges into opportunities.
– Challenges can make you better or worse. But the challenges can become fortune, not misfortune.
– Meditation and prayer reduce stress and give health and longevity.
– When you are positive, you are not the only one that benefits, everyone around you benefits from your positivity.
– Positive energy is contagious.
– If you’re negative, you impact people around you in a negative way but if you’re positive you impact people around you in a positive way.
– Each day you can choose whether to be a germ and infect people in a negative way or be vitamin C and impact them in a positive way.
– Kindness Feeds others. When you feed others, you are also feeding yourself. Other people need your kindness — kind action, kind word and positive attitude.
– Encourage others and speak into the lives of others. People need your encouragement.