OK so I need to vent this because I honestly can’t believe people think this way.
My girlfriend had a bunch of her friends over from college the other night. Really nice people, almost to nice, annoyingly nice. Then I figured out why they were being to nice.
They are practicing this thing called Ask, Believe, Receive. The idea is that if you keep telling yourself everyday that you will have a good day or whatever you come up with, then it will happen and you will be a happier person. As they were explaining this to me, I tried, I really tried not to break out in hysterical laughter, but I couldn’t help it.
I think it’s great to have a positive outlook on life, but these guys think that just because they are saying what they want to happen, it will happen. They also believe that by being nice 100% of the time, they are making themselves happier.
Here is my issue: Being nice to people does feel good but it can be VERY bad for you if you do it to much. Think of sugar. Sugar is awesome, in small quantities, beyond that it becomes bad for you. Same thing with being too nice. If you are too nice then people WILL take advantage of you.
If you only look at the positive things in life and not the negatives you are setting yourself up for a major meltdown when something negative DOES happen to you. Which it will. People need to be balanced. You need to see both sides of the world.
It’s partially bullshit, but being a positive minded thinker and having goals and actually seeing myself complete them in my head has worked out immensely well for me in my existence.
It does smell a little like BS, but if thats what they want to do, let them. It isn’t ‘wrong’, just not the most productive way of looking at life.
I personally look at life like this:
-The past is the past. Learn from it, but don’t dwell on it. You can’t change it anyways.
-Live in the now. Focus on what’s happening around you at this moment. Take it for what its worth and no more.
-Plan for the future, but don’t worry about it/dwell on the what ifs. Just because something could happen doesn’t mean it will. You influence your future, so instead of worrying about it do something now (living in the now) that will nudge your ‘fate’ toward the positive.
I started looking at life this way at the end of highschool/start of college. I’ve been pretty happy since.
You my friend are my kinda guy, no homo. Thats exactly how I feel. I strive every day to be just a tiny bit nicer to people as they are to me, that way when they act-a-fool, I can just take it down a notch and still not look like a douche like they are.
Everything I screw up, break, lose at, get hurt by… etc. I look first for the positive side of it, and attempt to fix it or get better from it. BUT I allways look for the bad shit that comes from it and try NOT to allow it to happen again. IE: Learning from my mistakes.
It is completely retarded to run around screaming “I won the lotto” 24/7 with anticipation that you will win it soon by doing so. I know thats probably not the extreme that they are going to, or atleast I hope they arnt.
You should have walked out into the living room butt ass naked, doing a helicopter yelling “you are all going to bang me, you are all going to bang me, you are all going to bang me” until they did. ROFL
I don’t necessarily have any particular name for an outlook on life but I try and look at everything from a broad perspective and approach responding to it calmly and with a level head. Having a ridiculous sense of humor where everything is funny in some way helps a little lol. Obviously it doesn’t work all the time but overall its niiiiiiiice
Like I said, I have no problem with having a positive outlook on life and being happy. What I do have a problem with is believing that being ignorant/naive is a means to happiness.
But hey, if ignorance to something is what makes you happy, more power to you.
Yes Benny but the real question is. Did the bacon satisfy your needs and make you happy? Or did the bacon just make you realize that you are in a never ending cycle and that even an infinite supply of bacon will never satisfy your needs, therefore never making you happy?
They got about half of it right.
It’s helpful to have a positive outlook, but in order for good things to come to you, you have to be proactive. Just forcibly “being nice” and then expecting some sort of karmic rewards for it is hippy non-sense.