It’s really hard to stay positive. It’s hard to not to be sarcastic and cynical. It’s hard to smile when you feel like frowning, laugh when you feel like crying and be kind when you feel the deep urge to be selfish or nasty. But it’s so important to do this because regardless of your feelings, your attitudes and actions shift the balance of this entire world! Everything you do matters.

What worries me the most is not that we aren’t capable of putting our best face forward, but that we’re too lazy to expend the mental energy it takes to think of things from another person’s perspective for even a few fleeting seconds.

If we would only do this, we could make a drastic difference in the way we see the world and the way the world, in reality, reacts back to us.

I know I walk away from so many situations in life thinking ill of another person, or some organization, or society in general. The tendency is always to displace blame in order to rationalize your actions and keep satisfaction with yourself, but it’s actually not the way to create attitudes of true happiness or to make a difference with your one little go around this planet.

Even in the most selfish intentions, it’s just not how you get your way. You catch more bees with honey.

When you’re polite, a person is slightly more inclined to return the favor. Even when someone says something you strongly disagree with, your reaction is still important.

The wrong one sends you into an unproductive spiral of argument or pent-up rage when you leave the situation, but having a positive, or at least diplomatic, reaction might let you walk away knowing you did your best.

In the best-case scenario you might have turned an enemy into an ally or planted a seed in someone that will result in positive inner change for them, and that’s real power.

Being able to find the positive in an interaction with someone shows a lot more about your strength than being able to come up with a good comeback or insult. And besides, as Buddha said, “He who holds a burning coal with the intention of throwing it at someone else is the one who gets burned.”

How many negative feelings are you harboring towards others in your life while they go along, happy and unaware of those feelings? You only hurt yourself with your negative feelings because your enemies have already moved on. Let ’em go.

By the very law of physics, every action you take echoes through eternity. Every energy you exude grows exponentially in that direction as it travels through time and space.

What kind of waves of energy and activity are you filling your world with?

In music, cacophony is the expression of several different instruments in random disorganization. The loudness of many different rhythms and notes trying to exist in the same space without working together creates unpleasant noise.

When working within certain musical structures, or scales, and being aware of and listening to each other, those players and instruments can achieve a sound of beautiful, blissful harmony.

So it is with life. We all walk around with these inner voices shouting at us about our own problems and desires and dreams and obstacles, yet when that comes outside of our brains through our mouths and body language without any thought, we are destined to have conflict with each other.

We can still be ourselves and get what we need while observing some of the “scales” of life, like general kindness, politeness and social awareness.

When we express these energies, we are less likely to bang into each other’s music in cacophony, and more likely to create pleasant waves of positive energy and harmony.

Think of a time your team won a big game or your favorite band played an awesome show and you jumped up and down in celebration with other fans.

One of them could have the same political opinions as that commentator you hate on TV. One of them could judge you for having different religious beliefs than he has.

But in that moment, you’re able to put those judgments or assumptions aside in favor of celebrating your team or your band. You forget your possible differences and unite and you’re totally in the moment. Did that really hurt so bad?

So think of humanity as your team. Not everything’s perfect, we’re not going to agree on everything, but let’s celebrate being out there and being alive!

Think of each person as a fellow fan of life, as a musician capable of producing beautiful music with you.

If you have a positive view towards people when you meet them, it’s so much more likely everything will go smoothly. It’s worth it for everyone.

Author