Think Positive, Be Positive, Live Positive

Of all of the things I have learned during my life, one of the most important lessons is being positive.  Being positive impacts every aspect of your life every day.  To me, attitude is everything.  They way you feel and how you portray yourself to others has an impact at work, with professional connections, at home, with your friends, your children, family members, complete strangers, etc.

At a very young age I learned to redirect my energy through judo. It started at judo and eventually I could use exercise to deal with negative energy. At the end of a hard workout I feel WONDERFUL. It's like I am able to restart from a better place. Being healthy is one thing. A peer of mine, Dan Capizzo, discusses how important it is to keep the mind trained. Living at the Olympic Training Center and training with elite athletes really taught me how to use my mind and body together and my recovery from stressful situations (i.e. training for high level tournaments, pursuing Olympic dreams) became almost instantaneous.

Being a positive force takes time and dedication. It started with  USA judo and exercise and eventually became a way of life for me.  For over ten years I worked at a job that was high stress.  I found myself dreading going to work. I stumbled upon a book, "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People."  With so much in common with the book I started to apply it into my daily life.  Next, I attended a Society for Human Resources Management Conference.  Tony Hsieh, the CEO of Zappos, was a presenter.  He gave an inspiring speech with such honesty. He talked about his journey through life, work, and events he sponsored for Delivering Happiness.  On the plane home from the conference I was reading his book, Delivering Happiness, and since then I've been a supporter of constant happiness since. It's odd that one encounter gave me the motivation to change. My change was getting a new job.  I moved to a company where I have no stress. Removing one stressor allowed me to find happiness everywhere else. 

I try to approach EVERYDAY with a positive attitude. If my day starts going astray I will literally say "this is not going to happen (red cape on)," I try to refocus my energy and keep going as positively as possible.  I've found that if you let things go downhill the slide is quick and not an enjoyable ride. If my day isn't the best I follow it with a great workout. Sometimes it is on the treadmill, sometimes it's at Zumba. I was lucky to find a way to redirect my negativity to positivity.  I hope you have been able to find this too.