I’m going to keep this one short and sweet today (alright, I know, I can hear you laughing).
I don’t want to write an entire pep talk about the virtues of looking on the bright side (even though, okay, that is a totally valid topic). (Maybe another day.) But I do know, from experience, how we can get stuck looking at the same things the same way every time.
For example, if you look at an ink splot and see a woman’s face, the chances are you’ll see that woman’s face every time you look at it. If I told you I saw a bee, you’d probably really struggle to see it, because you’ve already seen the woman’s face.
I feel like the same is true for positive and negative thinking. Once you start looking on one side (regardless of which side) you get stuck seeing everything that way.
Take the half a glass of water. It’s the age-old question of whether it’s half full or half empty. (It’s half full, by the way – it’s a known fact you never measure out anything by how empty the rest of the container is.)
And you could say to me: “It’s half full, I see it as half full.” But you only have to look at it once and see it as half empty, and then it becomes stuck like that. The next time you look, it’s half empty. You get trapped in the pattern. Half empty, half empty, half empty. And we don’t even realise – because it’s the same frigging glass.
So here’s a challenge, as a test: spend the next twenty-four hours making a conscious effort to look at everything as if the glass is half full. It might sound silly, but trust me – you will be surprised at the difference it makes (and how much you were actually seeing that glass as half empty). And I’m only asking for twenty-four hours – what have you got to lose?
Try and prove me wrong.
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