Positivity

I make a point of being positive. By that, I mean that I choose to be positive rather than negative.

Maintaining positivity is work. It takes more effort to be positive than to be negative.

I liken it to the light side of the Force versus the dark side. It takes significantly more energy and commitment to be Luke or Yoda than it takes to be Darth Vader or the Emperor. Why is that?

Sometimes, it's group mentality.

Suppose we're in a car with friends, on a back road, and one of the tires goes flat. There's no spare, there's no AAA, and cell service is sketchy.

Our friends get crabby. Even when help is on the way they're festering:

"This sucks! I was stupid not to renew AAA."

It'd be easy to chime in, wouldn't it? In fact, doing so might cement our friendship, whereas not doing so might make us a traitor.

Sometimes, it's habitual conditioning.

Even though life's good - or great, even - and there are no clouds on the horizon, we manufacture negative "what-if" scenarios, because that's what we've always done.

There's no thought or intention to it. We slip into it like a pair of tattered shoes; no longer comfortable, yet familiar. And like those shoes, it leaves us tattered and worn.

We have a choice. What's yours?