Maybe your parent or a teacher has said this to you: “You need to have a positive attitude!”
And maybe that seemed wrong to you. If it did, here’s some food for thought:
Yes, life can be difficult.
I agree with you that there are lots of things to be negative about. This may be a small comfort, but there have always been a lot of things you could be negative about! Imagine being a kid during medieval times when the plague hit your village. (OK, maybe you shouldn’t imagine that!)
But let’s just take this as a given: Human life has always been full of peril.
So why are kids more negative about life than kids used to be? The answer is pretty simple: we know more about the bad things that could happen. That kid in a medieval village only knew about the bad things that happened close by. You can know every bad thing that’s happening in the world! You can even know all the predictions of bad things that might happen!
That can be exhausting.
But life is better when you focus on the positive.
Focusing on the positive doesn’t mean only believing good things. All people need to pay attention to the struggles in this world and try to make it a better place.
But focusing on the positive does mean making sure that you find the good things about every day. It means looking forward to good things that you hope will come.
Everyone who has made positive changes in this world agree:
- Mahatma Gandhi freed his people in India by focusing on the positive
- Martin Luther King, Jr. believed that you should always recognize the joy in life, even in the midst of a struggle
- Abraham Lincoln led his country through a devastating civil war believing that he’d find a better country at the end
Here’s my challenge to you:
Every morning, plan to find a piece of joy in life.
- Appreciate something beautiful in nature.
- Think about something you love about a family member or friend.
- Look forward to learning something cool that you didn’t know before.
Just writing this has made me feel joy that you, whoever you are, are out there listening. I’m so excited for each young person who is rising from their sleep today able to find a reason to go forward and make this world a better place.
Image by frank mckenna.