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Distinction 1
Winners create positive meanings.
Whiners create negative meanings.
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How do you define the seasons, events, and moments of your life? How do you view the circumstances and people around you? Winners have learned to look for and find the good in their lives and the world. Whiners seekāand eventually findāthe negative aspects of their lives.
One of the most powerful things you can learn to do is create positive meanings. Even for seemingly negative events, there exists a silver lining. Seek it, and you shall find it. What are you seeking? The good or the bad?
You get what you look for in life. Itās worth repeating: You get what you look for in life. Most people take the seasons, events, and moments of their lives and define them as negative. Even when life offers them a wonderful opportunity, they miss it. Why? Because they simply arenāt looking for it.
Winners find the opportunity in every difficulty because they seek it. Whiners find the difficulty in every opportunity because they, too, find what they seek.
What is your initial mental reaction when faced with a difficult experience? Do you look for the good or the bad? Almost every event in our lives can be viewed as negative or positive. Why not choose the empowering path?
Whiners view the world through a negative lens, a damaging perspective that creates needless suffering. And, although suffering can bring its own positive lessons into our lives, whiners experience needless mountains of self-inflicted struggle and pain. The meanings you create in your life determine whether you experience joy or pain. They have the power to get you through the tough times and they also have the power to keep you stuck for a long time. How do you define your experiences?
One of the most destructive things I see whiners do is stack several events of their lives and create negative meanings for each one. Another way to ruin your life is to define entire seasons of your life as negative. Many people do this in business and marriage. They look back on a season, remember a few negative moments, and label the entire season as negative.
Winners remember the good times from their past. They even think back to some of the tough times with gratitudeābecause they learned so much going through them. Most seasons have both positive and negative experiences in themāchoose to remember the positive moments. In your present moments, learn to call them good. If youāre going through a tough time right now, is it possible that it contains a hidden blessing? Yes, itās very possible. Strive to create positive meanings in your present circumstances. As you do this more and more, you will think back on these moments with joy and gratitude.
In my book The Top 10 Distinctions between Millionaires and the Middle Class, the number one distinction is that millionaires ask themselves empowering questions while the middle class ask themselves disempowering questions. People will remain whiners as long as they ask disempowering questions and create negative meanings. When you learn to ask yourself empowering questions and create positive meanings, then you will become a winner.
There is one specific question that we always (yes, always) ask ourselves during an experience. The question is: What does this mean? Most people are unaware of the questions and answers that are continually going through their minds, but winners are conscious of this inner dialogue. They create empowering questions and positive answers. Learn to duplicate that, and your life will be transformed. You will move from fear to faith, from stress to peace, from darkness to light. Whatever you are going through, find the good.
Winners understand that there are always many different perspectives we can choose to view an event or circumstance from. Your point of view is yours to control. You can change your perspectives if you choose. Winners work on their perspectives and that makes them powerful people, while whiners usually only look at things from one point of view, their own. Winners and whiners see things differently because winners choose their perceptions based on the results they want in their lives. People create different results because of different perceptions. Millionaires look at money from a different perspective than people who are middle class. Healthy people look at health and nutrition from a different perspective than people who are unhealthy. And winners look at life from a different perspective than whiners do. Winners practice looking at each area of life from different perspectives so we can experience as much of life as possible. Life has more to offer than any one of us can experience alone. By practicing looking at life from different perspectives you can and will experience more. It will change you. You will become a different person, a better person.
The meanings you create about situations are simply the perspectives you have about them. Changing your perspectives is to change the way you think. Changing the way you think is not easy, but you can make it fun. Winners enjoy creating positive meanings because it increases their peace of mind and raises them above their situations. Whiners are under their situations, winners are over them. You can learn to fly and look down from above, or you can be depressed and feel beneath your situations. Choosing to create positive meanings can lift you up from a pit of depression and put you on top of a mountain.
Practice looking at life from different perspectives; I guarantee you will learn to love your life. As you practice looking at life from a positive perspective, you will get good at creating positive meanings and you will be a winner. You will start winning more consistently and living life to the fullest. You can create a great life by creating positive meanings.
Winners create positive meanings.
Whiners create negative meanings.
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What Now?
Read this book often. Repetition is one of the primary ways we train our minds to think differently. When we think different, we act different, and achieve different results.
Share copies of this book with the appropriate people in your life so you can discuss the Distinctions and learn from each otherās experiences and perspectives.
Go to keithcameronsmith.com and register for the Wise Distinctions e-mail so you can receive continued support in developing a Winnerās mentality. You can also get more information about the Wisdom Creates Freedom Workshop and the Wisdom Creates Winners Workshop taught by Keith.
