Unlimited Jargon

Be more positive - using bookmarks

If you are anything like me you might often feel that the vast majority of information you receive is negative. For example the media often criticises, friends regularly gossip and complain and comedy seems to rely on other's misfortune and opportunistic cynicism.

In an environment of such morbidity it is hard to keep positive and optimistic, however I have developed an intriguing solution which I will now share.

The basic premise involves studying your lifestyle and routine and observing when and where you get your information from.

So for example you might end up with something like:

TV
Internet
Newspapers/Magazines
Friends & Family
Books
Speakers e.g. at public events
and lots of other smaller sources as well.

The next step is to review each of the areas you have identified - for example - tv - and specifically examine which shows make you happier/better informed/more positive and which make you lethargic or sad.

So for example you might find that after watching BBC News you are better informed, but also less happy. A good way to test your interest is to see how much of the news you remember the following day.

Assign each show a score out of 10 based on how positive you think a show is and the impact it has on you (are you happier?).

Now repeat the same steps for websites - which ones make you most positive and best empower you. Again score the sites.

Repeat for newspapers, magazines, friends, books and so on.

What you should end up with is a list of the places you get your information from along with a score of how positive each source is.

It is now simply a case of maximising your exposure with the sources that make you positive and minimizing contact with ones that make you less positive.

Some suggestions for doing this include checking out when your favourite tv shows will be on and avoiding shows which don't give you value, adding more positive bookmarks to your browser and removing sites which aren't helping, changing your newspaper or magazine subscriptions to ensure you get regular positive information, spending more time with people who make you happy, reading the books of authors you enjoy and also going to events you benefit from. In this way cultivating a positive attitude will become easier and when people do feel down you'll be ready to remind them of the good things.

Labels: My philosophy

posted by Caesar on Thursday, June 12, 2008