Tuesday, July 1, 2008

General Positive vs. General Negative


OK, the below is a wee bit hokey, and not terribly well written, but I like the premise behind it. And, and since I'm personally dealing with a struggle against Negative Thinking lately, I thought it was rather ironic that an acquaintance (someone I barely know) included me on her distribution list for the email that contained this little message...

So read, take what makes sense to you, and discard the rest.

Monday Morning with the Generals
You have two powerful generals who are ready to carry out your every command. One is General Negative and the other is General Positive; they reside in your subconscious.
Each morning after reading the paper and hearing the news you get a briefing from each General. In your role as commander-in-chief you are in charge of your conscious mind. You “think it” and one of your great generals in command of your subconscious mind will obey. Which shall it be? What kind of day do I want? If you think negative thoughts, General Negative will respond. But if you think positive thoughts, General Positive will take over. You decide to act in a courageous manner; you declare war on all negative thoughts, including those people who want to say and act negative in your presence. This decision will cost you the favor of General Negative and all his followers. You are now in a war, General Negative has responded by declaring war on General Positive and it is going to be a protracted war; it may be a war that will last your entire life. They are both great commanders and both have huge armies with good support back home. Neither of these generals has ever lost a war. General Negative will not surrender quietly; you must keep your line of positive thoughts flowing to General Positive constantly if you want to be a positive, optimistic person.

Isn’t this the way it is in real life? The positive thoughts are always battling the negative thoughts for space on our ‘bus’? Some people win this battle easily; they act out the part played by the positive thinkers of the world. They maintain a positive mental attitude, they appear happy, upbeat and successful, a person everyone loves being around; they are like honey attracting bees; people are attracted to them.You don’t have to go far to find cynics and negative people commanded by General Negative; they surround us every day. He is the whining neighbor; she is the clock watcher I work with. They are the ones who are skeptical; they doubt everything; they are ones who say it won’t work; it can’t be done. “We tried that before,” is their personal mission statement. They never try anything new or different. Why should they, they know every thing; they know it won’t work. Having a negative mental attitude is unhealthy; it is destructive and it ruins people’s lives. “Life is cruel and not fair”; they lament and like the old song, “I get the neck of the chicken and the rumble seat ride.” General Negative has a great advertising and public relations department; he owns the news. A newspaper reporter recently commentedwhen questioned why all the newspapers were so full of bad stuff. “If it isn’t bad it really isn’t news,” was his answer. This is a good reason not to read the morning paper unless you want to start your day with a negative attitude.“Never think of failing,” for if you do your General Negative will command your subconscious. The subconscious mind is a slave to our conscious mind and willingly obeys its every command. Say the words, “This is a lousy day,” and behold you will have one. Say the words, “I feel great,” and if you are not very convincing say them again and again until you believe them. And now you are ready for a great day because you have planted a positive idea into your subconscious. General Positive will take it from there.

5 comments:

Me said...

OMG my husband could have written this. I am dizzy from reading it but it came at a good time. Thank you.

HWHL said...

Smiley,
Me too. That negative thinking is a bugger, isn't it? It's like a vortex that pulls you in and won't let you go. However, I keep fighting! (And I know you do too!)

Suzanne said...

Nice....We should ALL try to stay positive all the time. Sometimes is it harder than other times.
A good lesson.

Unknown said...

Is that General Patton?

HWHL said...

Deron,
Yes, I think it is Patton... I just Googled "generals" for a suitable picture for this post.... but I'm 95% sure that is a photo of Patton.