I’m never a strong believer of Law of Attraction but I do believe in one thing – if you think positive, you will attract positive things. Same thing goes for negativity. If you are always feeling down and behaving negatively, you will attract negative things.

I’ve experienced this many times in the past and I can tell you this…. if you think you’re having the most unfortunate day in your life, it’s only going to get worse!

Well, in my humble opinion, this does not really have anything to do with Law of Attraction but something to do with the things you are focusing on. Let’s say you are feeling negative and down, and the whole world seems crushing down on you today. You will tend to focus on the negative side of things….and you will start adding in all the negative things you can find. This will make your mood worse! And to finish things off, you will ignore the positive things happening around you. You will fail to notice their existence because you focus too much on the negative side of things.

For example, I was feeling quite down few days ago because few people have forgotten about my birthday and I did not really celebrate with my friends. I kept thinking about how much better my birthday would have been…. and how boring it was, etc. The next day, I was still feeling down and unhappy. But I’ve decided that enough is enough and I should stop behaving that way. Once I’ve done that, something happened. My mood and my whole world seemed to brighten up. I started to notice that this year, my birthday was in fact a very good one because my family made a lot of efforts to celebrate with me and all my good friends remembered my birthday (few surprise calls as well). Yeah, I was wrong to feel down when there were so many things that I should be grateful of, happening around me.

I’m pretty sure I’m not the only person who has experienced something like this before. Most people did. The only difference is whether the person manages to “wake up” and appreciate the things around him, or if the person continues to accumulate all the negative things he can find. Always remember that if you don’t make the decision to stop thinking negatively, you will not be able to see the positive side of things and it will be difficult for you to be happy. So start making the decision because only you yourself can do that.

Things don’t always go the way we want them to. In fact, if you’re having a bad day, things always don’t go the way you want them to. It can be quite demotivating and it will certainly make your mood go bad.

I believe everyone has such an experience, myself included. But over the years, I’ve learnt that no matter how screwed up things are, it is not the end of the world. And no matter how bad things look to be, there are actually not THAT bad if you look at them from another perspective.

For example, the other day, I woke up late as I was feeling very tired. I was late by 40 minutes actually. So I rushed to my workplace, just few minutes before the training started. Of course, rushing will not make one’s mood good. I entered the office with a not-so-good mood. Guess what? The office building was having a power outage since 6am. If I were to go in earlier, I would have to suffer for longer period of time!

Another example, my business trip to Sydney was canceled. I was pretty sad but when I think about it, it’s actually a blessing in disguise. The H1n1 case in Australia is actually worse than Malaysia so canceling my trip to Australia is not really a bad thing.

There are countless examples that I can give you but I’m sure you get the meaning, so I’ll just spare you with those boring stories. And I’m pretty sure you can find those similar stories in your life as well.

All I want to say is, things do happen for a reason. If it’s a setback, don’t dwell on it for too long. Look at it from a different perspective. Maybe it IS better for things to be in this state. Hope it helps.

p/s…. mmm maybe the spread of the flu virus in my office is also a blessing in disguise? hmmm

This year, a lot of people will be feeling the heat from the recession especially those who have lost their jobs or have their salary reduced. Due to this, it’s very normal to be feeling down and demotivated.

What does this mean for us? It means that there are a lot of people around us who are feeling negative and we will more or less be affected by these individuals. It’s really difficult to stay positive when people keep telling you that the world is going to end soon (imagine people saying that for every single hour….isn’t that very demotivating?).

What should we do then? The best solution, as recommended by many motivational gurus, is to chase them away. Isolate them. Make them disappear from your life, or vice versa. This way, their negativity will not reach you and you can continue your quest to be more positive-minded.

But, how applicable is this advice? To be honest, I don’t think it is applicable. If these individuals are our hi-bye friends, colleagues or other people who are not very close with us, we can give them this “isolation treatment”. But what if these individuals are our family members, close friends, pets, or those who play an important role in our life? We can’t just say “Let’s ignore them and their negativity. I want to be positive and I will only take in positive stuff!”

No, we can’t, because they do matter a lot to us.

What we can do, however, is to try and change them to become more positive. This is a very difficult thing to do, but it is worthwhile for both you and the people you care about. Try to make them think more positively. I know there are some people who are very negative, and stubborn – this kind of people, I will still try for few times before giving up. If they are not willing to change, I will not isolate them, but I will filter out those negative elements whenever they talk to me. Accepting them for who they are is the best I can do.

Also, it does help if you force yourselves to be positive even when surrounded by negative people. If you do it often enough, people will see the difference in you and they will change for the better. My parents are now more positive minded because of that approach (they’re quite stubborn, so the first approach didn’t work on them).

Last but not least, do take note that this process is pretty tedious and not easy. But for me, it is still a lot better than just isolating the people you really care and love just because they are negative-minded.

Hope it helps.

I used to be one of those people who love to compare with other people in terms of achievements and other things (money, cars, properties, etc). To me, having nicer things in life will make me and the people around me happier. That’s why I’ve spent a lot on the nice things – gadgets, computers, etc.

But after my 6 months stay in UK, separated from my family, I came to realize that these things don’t really matter. I’ve bought the car I wanted (fortunately, I wasn’t too ambitious with such things), and stay in the place I wanted (with the help from my parents). To be honest, I’m a lot better than a lot of people my age. But did that make me happier because I’m better than others?

No.

I am happier, but not because of those things or because I’m better. I’m happier because I get to stay with my family. I’m happier because my whole family can sit down everyday to watch the Channel 8 Korean series together. I’m happier because I can enjoy my mum’s cooking everyday.

I told this to a friend of mine who love to compare with other people about bigger cars and bigger houses. He said that I used to compare a lot too. I must admit that I still do that once in a while (a lot lesser now), but it’s more like ranting than actually forking out so much money for things that I cannot afford (slaves to the banks, anyone?).

Because I realized that happiness doesn’t come from the big or nice things that we have, but it comes from within ourselves. If you’re discontent and unhappy, no matter how big a car you have, or how expensive the house you’re staying in, you will never be happy. That is why I personally feel that it is not what you have that matters but how you make the most of what you have.

p/s… the last thing that I bought which is more than RM 500 was…erm…my phone which is 4 years old now.

p/s… maybe some readers will flame me for this article. Feel free to do so.

I came across this valuable article about “Finding a Good Job in a Bad Economy” which I feel will be helpful to a lot of people out there. And I strongly believe in the points stated in that article.

From what I can see, networking and preparing yourselves (in terms of skills and mindset) are 2 very important things before you look for a job. Because if you’re without the proper skills, you will not be attractive in the eyes of the interviewer and might just become one of the hundreds of average job applicants. On the other hand, if you have a negative mindset and do not even believe in yourselves, your low confidence will be very obvious during the interviews. An employer does not want to hire someone who does not even believe in himself. Thus, it’s very important to be optimistic and remain positive….even if you’re suffering from a pay cut or a retrenchment.

Anyway, do have a look at the article and hopefully it can provide some insights in your job hunting.

Good luck and hope it helps.