In January 2016 I rang in the New Year by reciting the “Optimist Creed.” Although I am not a member of Optimist InternationaI, I have kept a small poster of the Optimist Creed on my desk at home for years. It was a gift from someone I worked with many years ago and it has stayed with me, perhaps because it reminds me of the promise to maintain a positive outlook on life and stay focused on the things that are truly important.

For those who are not familiar, it is stated here:

Promise yourself

To be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind.

To talk health, happiness and prosperity to every person you meet.

To make all your friends feel that there is something in them.

To look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true.

To think only of the best, to work only for the best, and to expect only the best.

To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own.

To forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future.

To wear a cheerful countenance at all times and give every living creature you meet a smile.

To give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticize others.

To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear, and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.

This “creed” has been around for a long time, and the message is found in other approaches to positivity. The “don’t sweat the small stuff” phrase is just one example of ways people have tried to stay focused on what is most important, relegating minutia and insignificant matters to the back burner.

It is very easy to recite the creed and perhaps just as easy to say we won’t sweat the small stuff. However, the difficulty lies in trying to stay true to these ideals when shaken by the realities of the world we live in.

For those of us who try to stay positive and optimistic, at least we can more easily detect negativism. As you become more aware of the tendency others may have to drift into the negative zone, you can recognize it … then help frame a conversation or a situation that pulls us back from the brink of the negative spiral. If we are not focused on it or see it when it happens, it is so easy to look up and find that the negative spiral has taken over our every existence. We then accept negativity as the norm and engage in it to be accepted by just jumping on board.

All one needs to do is to just stop, listen and reflect on all the negativity we hear around us every day. We hear people framing all situations first as a problem, and then they dissect impressions and perspective with a backdrop of negativity. If that same situation is framed first as a positive, then it is more likely that the next thought will be more positive, constructive, and helpful. This is not sugar-coating but framing a conversation so that real dialogue and debate can occur without drifting to a place of doubt, worry, concern or perhaps outright disdain.

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