“That all sounds great but really, no one cares.”
Actual words spoken to me by a former boss when I told him I was going to focus on as many positive stories as I could as we entered 2021. I wasn’t sure he heard me correctly, so I repeated what I said.
I was met with a shoulder shrug and a smirk.
I knew then what my focus was as my time at a certain TV station was coming to an end. Even as former boss was cutting my time on the small screen down, I was going to find a way to keep these stories coming and coming.
I know, it might seem like a tall task but I had a moment with my son from years ago that I knew I could fall back on.
A teacher had given him a challenge in elementary school and he was only to count as many red cars as he could in an afternoon.
“Daddy, that is 14 and there is 15. Oh, wait, 16.” And on and on and on. I forget exactly how many we counted that afternoon, but it was a lot.
Just count all the red cars.
What I discovered that afternoon is that we focus on one certain thing, we can block a lot of things out. Negative things. It was pretty easy. We focused only on red cars and that was it.
Now apply that to positive stories. It works and it works perfectly. You focus on one positive and then, another one pops up. Then another one. And another one. Quickly, you have a stable of positive stories that can be told.
I have applied this little game to so many facets of my life. Just focus on the good things and if you can’t find it, search, and it will be there.
As I have said before, it takes the same amount of energy to focus on the bad as it does the good.
Just count all the red cars.
