The Influence of Positive Thoughts

Is it feasible that the world's best achievers think in ways that the majority does not?

Do you suppose the Wright brothers could have accomplished what they did if they had not believed it was possible? Was Mark Spitz's seven gold medals in swimming the result of thinking, "I can't do this?"

Have you ever considered that success in any chosen topic, whether financial, political, sporting, or else, may and was attained when the individual was in a negative state? That is, I can't do it – it's not feasible – it will never work.

I've been in the company of negative thinking, and let me tell you, their impact is quite powerful and destructive if left unchecked. "Look what happens when you put decaying fruit in a bowl of fresh fruit." This is why, if you want to be successful in life, you must surround yourself with positive thinkers and share your positive thoughts and attitudes with like-minded people.

It is also critical to write down your goals and have them somewhere you can see and read them daily.

In the late 1950s, 1500 Yale University students were issued a questionnaire with questions ranging from the quality of food served in the canteen to how simple it was to borrow books from the library. However, it is the last two questions that I would like to address.

1) Do you have any goals in life?

2) Have you made a note of it?

After discovering the existence of the questionnaires twenty-five years later, a postgraduate decided to conduct more research on the last two questions. Here are the conclusions of his investigation.

More than 75% of the students who responded to the questionnaire had life goals.

Only 3.3 percent had put down their goals.

After following down as many of the 3.3 percent (51 students) as he could, he discovered that they had all gone on to realize their aspirations — in business, government, and the professions.

Others he had contacted told him that most of what they had accomplished had happened more by luck than plan. They'd ended up in jobs they hadn't intended for because they hadn't defined what they were looking for. Is it then conclusive that you are actively programming or reprogramming your brain to change the way you perceive things subconsciously by putting down your goals?

I cannot confirm or reject the experiment because I was not a participant in it at YALE. However, I'd like to conduct my little investigation to test the efficacy of optimistic thinking.