Published on Medium on March 20, 2014
TL;DR Having a positive outlook on things involves making sure you are in a positive state. This can be achieved by being mindful of your thoughts and changing your physical state.
Last summer, I had an Irish girl, Dee, stay at my place from my Airbnb posting. It was supposed to last for a few days but her apartment search wasn’t going well so we decided that she could stay the whole summer because she was cool and I love Irish accents.
We would spend our evenings on the porch and chat about The America’s Cup, because she was a sailor, and also exchanged quotes that we found inspiring and thought provoking.
One such quote, or more of a mantra, was PMA. It stands for Positive Mental Attitude. From that night forward, any time that I was feeling a bit down or discouraged, Dee would say PMA. It felt like my mind was being checked like when a hockey player is “checked” into the wall. She recognized I was in a bad place and she verbally aided me to get out of it.
You better check yo self before you wreck yo self. — Ice Cube
It’s very empowering to know you have complete control over your mind, your thoughts, and your energy. Paying attention to your attitude affects your perspective about how you deal with the external environment. You’ll realize that when you are in a better mood, you are in a better place to handle challenges that come your way. Eventually, I didn’t really need Dee to “check” me, I was doing it myself by practicing mindfulness.
Change your state
This concept was further driven home when I was at DreamForce last year. One of the main speakers was Tony Robbins, one of the best motivational speakers of our time. His workshops usually take place over a week and culminates with people walking on hot coals. We only had three hours so he condensed his material to one main theme, “By changing your physical and emotional state, you will positively change your outcome.”
Your “state” is how you feel at the moment. It’s how you act, it’s how you think, it’s your current well being. An example that stood out was comparing his initial entrance into the room, which was full of fanfare, loud music, and cheering, to an entrance where we walked into the room with head hanging down, dull music, and a less than enthusiastic crowd. You could imagine that the latter wouldn’t lend confidence that this guy was a motivational speaker
Changing your state involves a physical “check” to your body and mind. At first you want to imprint happy feelings and energy to a process that works for you. I chose a King Kong style banging on my chest and grunt (I’m pretty chesty so it works for me). By associating that type of action with happy feelings and energy, anytime I go through this “check” it energizes me and more importantly, takes me out of a negative state.
With the PMA mantra and my “King Kong”check, I feel more confident on my ability to tackle challenges with an optimistic outlook and positive energy.
When all else fails follow Jessica’s lead