A Booster Dose of Positive Thinking

A positive attitude provides the essential fuel to keep you charged and ready to face everyday challenges in life. However, there are some really difficult times in every one’s life when he finds himself to be in an endless crisis. These are days when he feels so low that he does not even want to get out of the bed and face the world. Examples of such a crisis could be:  

• An important project at work runs into a crisis situation with no solution in sight.
• Business not going well – resulting in huge losses and financial disaster – have run out of money.
• Lost job and unable to find a new one.
• Serious health issues for self or a family member.
• Loss of someone close due to death.
• A difficult to resolve conflict in a close relationship.

Faced with such a crisis, one may think, "There is nothing I can look forward to. I am finished. The future is bleak. I find myself in a tight corner. What is there for me to feel positive about?"

Even the most hopeless situation can be turned around. Have heart from the fact that there are numerous stories of people who have faced such crisis situations and successfully come out of them. To handle our crisis successfully, we need to try our best and take positive action, but for that, we need to be in right frame of mind. It is necessary for us to keep a fighter’s spirit. However, the real challenge is – how do we keep high spirits in the midst of such a hopeless situation when we are feeling so dejected and worn out?

We need a lifeline, a booster dose of positive thinking to help us bail out from such a situation. The lifeline I am going to suggest is based on what Robert Louis Stevenson said, “Anyone can carry his burden, however heavy, until nightfall. Anyone can do his work, however hard, for one day. Anyone can live sweetly, patiently, lovingly, purely, until the sun goes down. And this is all that life really means.”

This booster dose is a program called “Just For Today”, using which we can charge our batteries daily with cheerful and constructive thinking, and get going with action.

Just For Today

• Just for today I will be happy. This assumes that what Abraham Lincoln said is true, that "most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be." Happiness is from within; it is not a matter of externals.
• Just for today I will try to adjust myself to what is, and not try to adjust everything to my own desires. I will take my family, my business, and my luck as they come and fit myself to them.
• Just for today I will take care of my body. I will exercise it, care for it, nourish it, not abuse it nor neglect it, so that it will be a perfect machine for my bidding.
• Just for today I will try to strengthen my mind. I will learn something useful. I will not be a mental loafer. I will read something that requires effort, thought and concentration.
• Just for today I will exercise my soul in three ways: I will do somebody a good turn and not get found out. I will do at least two things I don't want to do, just for exercise.
• Just for today I will be agreeable. I will look as well as I can, dress as becomingly as possible, talk low, act courteously, be liberal with praise, criticize not at all, nor find fault with anything and not try to regulate nor improve anyone.
• Just for today I will try to live through this day only, not to tackle my whole life problem at once. I can do things for twelve hours that would appall me if I had to keep them up for a lifetime.
• Just for today I will have a schedule. I will write down what I expect to do every hour. I may not follow it exactly, but I will have it. It will eliminate two pests, hurry and indecision.
• Just for today I will have a quiet half-hour all by myself and relax. In this half-hour sometimes I will think of God, so as to get a little more perspective into my life.
• Just for today I will be unafraid, especially I will not be afraid to be happy, to enjoy what is beautiful, to love, and to believe that those I love, love me.

This program was originally written long ago by Sibyl F. Partridge, but I learned about it from Dale Carnegie's book. I have tried this program myself and found it to be very effective as a lifeline.