Author: Gary M. Miller
Abraham Lincoln once met a man who he really didn't like. The
man kept annoying him and Abe couldn't understand what it was
that made him have to act like that all the time. In a famous
quote, he said "I don't like that man. I must get to know him
better." This quote embodies one of the great sentiments about
people that we sometimes forget to incorporate into our lives.
There are many people in the world who don't make sense to us
and who we wish were different than the way they are. In fact,
there are many people that we would simply do better to just
avoid rather than try to understand them. Still, Abe Lincoln's
quote is a great sentiment for many of us to learn by because it
teaches us that we don't always see people for who they truly
are and we may be too quick to judge a person who has been
through something that may have been harder than we can imagine.
Everybody is born into a certain life and is faced with
overcoming the difficulties that are presented to them. If we
are faced with some people who are extremely hard to endure, it
may be that there is a lesson in there for us to learn about the
problems that others face in their lives. It may be that we can
stretch our minds and our hearts to incorporate compassion and
understanding into our relationships and make things better for
ourselves and others. Learning to look past some of the initial
problems we see in others and find that silver lining in their
cloud is a great talent and an ability that can define a leader.
This was the kind of leadership that our 16th president embodied
and why he became such a great emancipator for so many people.
Another great quote that expresses the essence of a positive
attitude is by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Emerson once said "The sun
shines and warms and lights us and we have no curiosity to know
why this is so; but we ask the reason of all evil, of pain, and
hunger, and mosquitos and silly people." Emerson's words are a
real wake up call for many people. They may think to themselves,
have they ever felt the need to wake up every morning and see
the first glimmer of light as it begins to glow in the night
sky? Have they noticed how fast the sky begins to brighten up
upon the first evidence of daylight? Have they noticed how long
it takes after that before the actual sun can be seen on the
horizon? Have they noticed the magnificence of those first sun
beams as they peak over the horizon and burn a bright fire
against your eye?
These things that can be witnessed each morning by everyone on
the planet are more than often ignored by millions of sleeping
people. This amazing and monumental event is seen as nothing
because it happens everyday and has been pushed into the
background of our subconscious mind. The sun indeed provides all
life to the world and is an amazing phenomenon too great to even
imagine its intensity. Still, somehow this is all lost to us
against a long list of other problems and concerns that plague
us each day.
Keeping a positive attitude each day is something that can only
come through discipline and effort at first. Once we have
created a lot of bad habits and negative attitudes, they take a
concerted discipline to overcome. Once we overcome them,
however, we may begin to see great things in both the people we
thought we could never like and the magnificent sun that we
never noticed before.
About The Author: Gary Miller was the World's Leading expert on
Negative Thinking until he lost approximately $3 Million Dollars
because of a lifetime of negative thinking. To learn more about
his Journey to a Positive Thinking Recovery and weekly FREE
Positive Thinking techniques, you can visit his web site at:
http://www.
