You’re going to attract more people with positive messaging, stories and ideas than you will with negative ones.
Ya, I know. Facebook would argue that point, given the number of comments that negative-oriented posts get. I still think cute Facebook vids of dogs and cats and men dancing in their underwear still get more comments, more shares and more likes.
Some people know the quote by Bucky Fuller. It goes something like: “Don’t fight the system, make something better than it.” I’ve quoted it before. I’m just being lazy.
So why is it so many people focus on the negative? I’m not going to answer that question although I know. Instead let’s look at this one: What are the benefits of being positive?
For one, there are enough people in the world focusing on the negative things. You stand out like a beacon when you are positive. Second, while people will ignore you at first, focusing as they tend to on negative things, eventually they come around. Third, you’ll feel more positive about not only the world, but your self. Lastly, you’ll have access to solutions.
Those last two are so crucial. Particularly when taking on a Big Hairy Ass Goal (BHAG). Here’s how things work. When you’re positive and excited by the positive aspects of things, when you’re enthusiastic and eager about what you’re doing (or planning to do), confident about it, you are open. What are you open to? You’re open to possibility, you are able to see things in a way people who are consistently negative can not. The world becomes full of opportunities. It also becomes fun. Keep this up and seemingly miraculously, you will find yourself producing results that are, well, miraculous. Those results are hard to ignore, even by the pessimist/realist.
When you are open, you encounter “happy accidents” some people call luck. It’s not luck but who cares what it’s called? These events allow you to move beyond problems in ways you can’t when you’re being negative. Negativity causes you to only see more negative. Including the impossibility of “problems,” she sheer enormity of them, and the sheer number of them. You can’t see problems as opportunities (which is what they are) when you’re seeing them as problems. Problems are opportunities to alter and deepen your ability to bring forth miracles.
I know some people in TZM reading this are probably quaking in their boots in anger. You may not believe what you just read, or believe that I believe it. That’s ok, you can’t dispute the results we’ve produced in Copiosis. And we’re just beginning here!
Here’s the critical thing about being negative: It’s very hard to turn that train around. If you’ve been negative or “realistic” most of your life, it takes a lot of work to ease through all that negative shit you’ve pushed out into the world, shit that is coming back your way to land on you. My Bujinkan instructor used to call that negative shit we send out “sending out bombers, which return still loaded, ready to unleash their payload on you.” You’ve put a lot of momentum out there. That thought train isn’t going to stop on a dime. But it will eventually if put some effort into it.
Everyone can become a positive person. It’s worth it. If you’re planning to make the RBE, or any idealistic future our collective reality, being positive is critical. Otherwise your negative focus is counteracting all your positive acts. And while you may get somewhere, you won’t get as far, and it won’t be as fun as doing with positivity.
Thanks for your thoughtful comment Paul. You make good points. What we’re offering is a different perspective on what motivates or inspires people to change. We’re also offering insight to an aspect of our movement (the greater cause) that IMO is causing us to significantly hamper our work. We offer this in service to the work.
Seems to me it is part of working out the bugs. No?
We agree wholeheartedly with the last sentence of the first paragraph of your comment. Wholeheartedly.
Our future website, due to launch in early summer won’t include the link you mention. We recall actually hearing Brand offer to a reporter the RBE as a solution. So we wouldn’t say contact efforts have fallen on deaf ears. Don’t ask us to find that vid. It would likely take some time.
Why do you think there will be no statues erected in the future? Because leaders have failed us in the past? We agree, following some leaders is why we’re where we are. Maybe that’s more about who we choose as our leaders, as opposed to leadership itself? We wonder. That said, we understand your point and agree: we are emerging into an era of radical self-leadership. It is a hallmark of the Copiosis society as I see it.
Thanks again for your thoughtful feedback Paul!
I really don’t feel that criticizing this effort publicly would provide any benefit to you or any other RBE effort. You have the determination to try, and you can work out the bugs as you go. Any effort to alleviate the malignant effects of monetarism is worth trying, and I would rather support and advise, than criticize.
It would be nice to see you remove Russell Brand from your links below. He has been contacted by numerous RBE supporters over the years and does not appear to be receptive to the Venus Project. Besides which, there is a reason there will be no statues in the future. People following leaders is why we are stuck in this mess. 😉