It was a beautiful South Florida Saturday morning. I’m on my way to the car wash, and Van Morrison is belting out “Domino” on my stereo. There’s a black pickup truck driving alongside me with the window down and a puppy poking his head out.
His wide eyes, windswept ears, and tongue hanging out are demonstrating the exquisite state of canine nirvana he is experiencing. The disc switches to Stevie Ray Vaughn, and I’m thinking life is pretty good...
The day before, one of the guys from my softball team called me to say his car had been broken into, and his stuff stolen. He was just leaving his mother’s house and he was mad at her. She had warned him many times about leaving stuff like that in his car, and she had given him the “told you so” routine instead of sympathy.
I asked if they broke his window. They hadn’t, so I thought that was better, because it saved all that hassle. “Was your softball glove in the car?” I wanted to know. Turns out it was being repaired, so it wasn’t. I remarked how fortunate that was. (Gloves can take months to get broken in and comfortable.) He agreed that this was lucky, but that his old bat had been in the stolen items. I replied that he should be glad that it was his old one, not the new $300 one he got for Christmas.
“You’re such a motivational speaker!” he exclaimed with exasperation, “You see the positive in EVERYTHING!”
Guilty as charged. How about you?
-RG
Prosperity TV
Hey Randy,
I was just wondering if you are doing any seminars soon? and how do we find out about them? Your team wasn't able to tell me and I would love to attend as soon as I find out where and when.
I live in the UK so any that direction would be great but I would travel as it would be a good excuse for a new adventure.
Also any info on your coaching programme would be appreciated as that seems to be a secret that you are keeping to yourself. You are a hard man to give money to you seem to have set up your company so that it is impossible to find out how to get more resources 🙂 lol.
Let me know anyway
Thanks
David
Great post Randy. Sometimes it takes another set of eyes to help us see the world for what it really is just as you did with your friend. So many times in life we get behind the eight ball and do not see the great bank shot that would let us run the table.
I have scoped out the new "Breakthrough U" coaching program as well as an evening prosperity seminar I will be taking on tour. Unfortunately I am booked pretty much through the end of the year with private events. So the coaching program I'm hoping to start in a few months, and the live events may not be until November or next year. But as long as you subscribe to "Randy's Rants" and follow this blog you'll know about them.
Thanks for your interest, RG
I wonder what his batting average was with the OLD bat? Perhaps the thief did him a favor.
I look at it this way...
The more you focus on the bad, the more bad you end up getting.
But when you focus on the good things in something bad, you learn and grow from the disappointment.
I am glad to hear someone else has one of those types of mothers. But I love her to death.
JC
Each and every day I am learning to see the good in all things.
The alternative sucks!
Thanks Randy.
Great post. Your blogs are great at keeping me in check as I build myself as a leader. Everyday I read your blogs and am learning to lead by example similar to you, Randy. I will continue to distract the positive from all my experiences and will continue to protect my mind by minimizing negative influences on it.
I live like that everyday. This past year has been life changing for me because I offloaded a negative, even toxic person from my life. Just happened to be my first husband (25 yrs) the last 5 don't count ;-). When you are accused of "blowing sunshine" you get the message that no matter what you do or say it won't matter to them. I have been giving thanks and living large ever since, never been happier. My life is full and I am meeting like minded people everyday. Awesome! 🙂
Dude- I am here at the foot of Mayon Volcano, its So clear today the mountain is nearly two miles straight up from sea level the amazing size dwarfs you and makes you understand creation. This is one of the most perfectly shaped Cone Volcano's in the world, its almost kindergarten perfect paper mache'. To make it even more crazy is the fact that it is CURRENTLY active! A small whisper of smoke trails off the top of the cone. Covered in Sub Tropical Rain Forrest this place is simply breathtaking. I've been eating the most amazing food, like shark cooked in coconut milk, lots of native chili and fish... its like heaven for a hundred bucks...
And I just had this conversation with my woman, who recently decided to quit her work, depressed and crying worrying over the next thing, money and this and that. I told her this morning = 'LOOK AT THAT BEAUTY!' that volcano- look aren't you happy my business is doing great we could afford to take a week OFF? enjoy this moment-
I took another day off = opting for a quiet night in a local cute hotel with a clear view of the Volcano rather than fight like rats to make the last 'First Class' Bus of the night. I told her this morning through her tears, 'Babe- Read Randy Gage I'm telling you- its "ALL ABOUT HOW YOU SEE THE WORLD"
LO
And BEHOLD
your tweet to this, and your story-
here now at the foot of the Volcano I'm having her read it.
more soon!
-Kevin Leversee
hi there,
yup! that s me...
always looking for the good, always seing the bright side of things, no matter how bad it get there is always a positive side.
not everybody understand that. not everybody wants to be happy, they just want the attention, and when i show up i kind of brake there pitty song...
imagine if people would actually understand that, everybody might actually be happy......
that would be nice for a change.
keep up your posting.
take care
Mary_Ann:)
In his groundbreaking book "The Biology of Belief", Bruce Lipton explains how positive thinking doesn't just improve our mood, it directly impacts our physical health at the cellular level. According to Lipton, "... those rose-colored glasses are necessary for your cells to thrive. Positive thoughts are a biological mandate for a happy, healthy life." (Chapter 5, Biology and Belief)
Guilty as charged? Keep it up, Randy!
-jim
Randy,
It is a different set of eyes that tell us that things are neither good or bad but what we make them. I am good at consciously telling you that I am positive and look on the bright side, howeve I catch those little subconscious thougts creeping in every so often. Stop and cast those burdens onto the universe is what I now say when I start to take the on ramp to the "stinkin thinin" highway.
Thanks
Jim
Oh, that's a great post Mr G. A very good reminder.
I am a hopeless optimist 🙂
Our house is by a busy road and an unthinking person threw a lit cigarette out the window into the pasture next to our house. The fire swept down past our house/fences into my back pasture where it proceeded to take out 4 cars, my horse trailer, burned holes in the old barn roof and then about 300 ft of old fencing. It then burnt thru my pasture (taking out all the unmowed weeds) and stopped at the back fence. I was amazed and all I could think about was how grateful I was! The house wasn't touched. The animals weren't hurt. The cars were junk, not worth fixing. The fencing was old and needed replacing and the barn is coming down anyway. The firemen were amazed that the fire did not jump the fence and take out the 80 acres behind us! That would have been a real disaster! The insurance company gave us $10,000 which was sorely needed and replaced the fencing. I consider this event a miracle and personal favor.
My husband on the other hand, hasn't stopped complaining yet!
He is sad-sack, the fatal pessimist. He says, "Why me??? My poor stuff!"
My take on life is, stuff happens... you can be thankful for the blessings/lessons and move on or you can sit and be miserable and never learn or be happy. I choose the first.
a few ideas:
we do ask for things to happen in our lives, either by absence of the opposite !, or by more direct wish/thinking, like the guy who chains his bike and worries all day that it will be nicked in The Secret.
we also attract different outcomes depending on our environments: it reminds me of a friend who drives her Lamborghini only to go to places where it will not be severed in hundreds of small pieces ! and uses her old VW when she has to go to "unsafe places" I mean places where self-development has not yet found enough listeners...and we know those places !
finally I understand that some of us have a pessimistic attitude, and most (bad) things happen to those. The story about the old barn and the fence that needed replacing, is proof that with the positive attitude, the Universe will do its best to serve you.
You make me think every time you make a post on this blog !
thanks for that.
I am off to plant some more salads in my London garden! Have a good day.
HOW ABOUT ME... WELL LET'S SEE, WE ARE DRIVING DOWN A FREEWAY WITH ONE OF MY DOWNLINES.. TRAFFIC WASN'T CRAZY BUT THAT AREA IS USUALLY USED BY TRUCKS, WE WERE GOING TO PICK UP OUR PRODUCTS, WE WERE TALKING ABOUT HOW HE WAS NOT CONFORTABLE WITH INVITATIONS AND I WAS GIVING HIM SOME TIPS I HEARD FROM ERIC WORRE, SO ALL OF A SUDDEN, THE HOOD OPENS... YUP OPENS... RIGHT THERE... SO HE SCREAMS PUTS ONE HAND ON THE GLOVE COMPARTMENT AND THE OTHER ON THE ROOF AND YELLS NOT POSSIBLE!!!!!! WE ARE GOING TO DYE!!!!! I HAD ALREADY PUT THE PARKING LIGHTS AND WAS SLOWING DOWN WATCHING TRAFFIC THROUGH THE SIDE MIRRORS... BUT MY ANSWER WAS "OH YES ITS POSSIBLE", KEPT GOING, EACH TIME SLOWER UNTIL I CAME TO A COMPLETE STOP, GOT OUT OF THE CAR WITH HIM AND WE PUT THE HOOD IN THE BACK PART. I STARTED LAUGHING LIKE CRAZY, IT WAS JUST FUNNY REMEMBERING HIS SCREAMING "WE ARE GOING TO DYEEEE", JAJAJA AND ALL HE SAID WAS " I F.....G HATE YOUR POSITIVENESS!! LIFE ISN'T SO GREAT YOU KNOW" , MADE ME LAUGH EVEN MORE!!! SO I TOLD HIM, THESE THINGS HAPPEN, AND HE ASKED DID IT HAPPEN TO YOU BEFORE, AND NO... I WATCHED IT IN A MOVIE JAJAJJAJA.
BUT YOU SEE RANDY... LIFE IS AMAZING, AND THESE THINGS JUST MAKE AN ORDINARY DAY A UNIQUE ONE!!!
SO YES... I AM LIKE YOU!!!!!!!!!! AND WE ARE IN THE SAME COMPANY. HAVE AN AMAZING WEEKEND!!!!!!!
Congratulations! It's awesome (and challenging) to take powerful action steps to improve your life. Old, stagnant energy can be particularly tricky. I'm delighted to hear of your success and wish you the best in your new, improved life. Well done!
The key is movement in all aspects of your life; move your body through joyous exercise, your mind through education, your spirit through mindful meditation, and your emotions through connection and communication with people you feel good around.
Great post, Randy. Thanks for doing what you do.
When people complain about something, I sympathize with them, laugh, and then say, "Life's a ride; lots of loops, whirls, ups and downs, but at least you haven't been kicked off the ride yet." Some people get it and some don't.
Thanks to everybody for sharing your thoughts. I hope today is the best day of your life.
Love it!
-RG
Hi Randy-
Shouldn't your comment read, "fortunately" I am booked pretty much through the end of the year. Congratulations for being in such demand. The world needs bright lights!
Regards- Joe
I LOVE finding the positive in situations. In fact, it becomes a game, right?
Funny thing, though, when I put a positive spin on other people's situations like you did.......I have discovered that some people get pissed. Isn't that something?
They get PISSED that I have found the silver lining, Randy.
They want to 'be' in that misery. It's part of their story. They wouldn't be able to use their story of, 'see? if it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all.'
These are the people that I think twice about having in my inner circle.
Thanks for the Friday musings.....
~Jhanna
I feel for your husband about the loss of the cars.
If the friend in question learned from his mistake then it should be a big positive. Something bad did happen to him but, yes, it could have been much worse. I think there is a parrallel to how you may see the positive side of a specific situation to how you see things in general. Being positive is much better for someone both mentally and physically.
Hi!Thanks, Always nice to read your things, actually no matter what they say because YOU are great.
Most of the times I read many things everywhere about Get rid of negative people and look positive at everything and of course it is TRUE.And it actually happened to me the other day in FB I had written something in my status and one of my OLD friends who somehow always have been my biggest enemy and my biggest challenge and it like doesn´t work, She happened to se that status the three minutes it was there before I took it out,and wrote something who went straight down under and it was HARD to take.For some minutes my whole, old world came falling down on me-the world at that time when my life lied in her hands and I had nothing to say about anything(not her fault,guess it was MY victimized shit but terrible anyway)And I realised that she was a symbol for something in me that I still cannot conquer or how is it really.Old "friendship" who was nothing but a competition between people who have nothing in common from different worlds.
But I was not here to talk about this.I wanted to say that we cannot just get rid of people.The qualities we get rid of will come in other people as long as we cannot handle them,or keep ourselfes normal.And we have a three-folded relationship with the world ALWAYS.A now,a past and a future.If all of them are not here,sooner or later we become sick,crazy or something else.Or at least this is how I see it...We have to LIVE things, not get rid of them.I guess that is what you do so great dear Randy.Looking forward to see you on a great seminar soon.I will be the person with the greatest smile if you wonder, because I am going to be so happy to see you.My god I talked much DID anybody understand anything???
Love It!
Another great article...it usually takes team work to pull this off; as you just demonstrated. Bravo
I am finding the positive in pain...
For example, the pain of working out & the soreness after working out have long term benefits. There may also be some changes losing weight brings that I may perceive as negative or painful, but I need to remember my why...for example being healthy and fit...and those out weigh the perceived negative or pain.
Hi Randy,
I love this post.
Your friend was right about you when he said , 'You see the positive in EVERYTHING!' It is true that the more we focus on the good things in things, we learn and begin to grow, gaining what may have been lacking in us through bad things. And through the negative or bad things that happen that are out of our control in our life..it is true - we will be awaken and gain the inability of feeling the pains of others. Our degree of compassion, care and love for others seems to increase, and we begin to find some ignorance in certain areas of our life, not knowing what others may have been going through. There seems to be always a good side to a bad thing/or everything. One example I see from my own life is, as I look back now, my college years living in Kansas was very difficult one. I was very lonely, not being able to speak my language, no Japanese food, no family and best friends contacts, but always being alone, and often found myself very depressed. I wanted to leave there so badly, but that was when I was awaken to find out about who this human being was, and.. that was when God reached down to me and I found God, and I then gained the deeper strength base to cope with difficulties in life. Also, I learned an optimistic and simple-minded nature that is often found in Americans as is the case with other people in different countries. And, if I had just gone to a school in a place like California where you could in fact manage without speaking the English language, I would not have had to force myself to learn another language, and I am pretty positive that even to this day I may not be able to communicate with people in English the way I've been able to manage. Before going on and on as usual, getting almost sidetracked from the main point, I stop here. In conclusion, there is always a positive side to everything that happens in our life. It depends on how we look at things. Life is tough at times, but life is good. Enjoyed your blog as always, Randy. Hugs:: -saachi
I'm getting better every day!
It's fun to do just because it annoys the people who would rather be having a pity party instead!
This is great, Randy. I had a similar experience in NY two weeks ago.
My sister was complaining about several things, and with each complaint, I offered another way to look at it.
Finally, she looked at me in disgust, and said, "You really are a glass half full kind of girl, aren't you?!?"
I laughed and laughed. She said it like that was an insult. I'll have to blog about it at some point : )
I love the puppy visual and Steve Ray Vaughn; yes indeed life is good! Happy for your friend that you were there once again to point out the good!
Randy -
Loved this post! So simple, so true!
We tend to get bogged down in negativity
when things are going right and we need
to "look on the positive side".
I appreciate your honesty and simpleness!
~Andrea
Toronto is such a beautiful city to hold a seminar in 🙂
This is one area of my life that has improved 100% since following Randy's blog.
I now look at everything from the positive view point.
I find that it affects how I deal with people, I smile more, and guess what people smile back 🙂
Randy,
What a great post! I have learned since I parted ways with the negative folks in my life and have surrounded myself with more positive minded people, I have become a better person and now I also see the best of a bad situation.
Thanks for sharing your story.
Best regards from Maine,
Anne
Randy - I have been slacking at coming to your site lately - and today managed to play 'catch up'.
This is by far the most timely post you've written.. I swear, it's like you've peered into my life and decided... 'mmm.. let me talk about something that will pull Paul's goalie.'
I've been guilty of being so happy at how life goes sometimes, when something does go wrong, I immediately find myself saying, "wha??? common!! everything is going so WELL!!! why this now??"
And there, hidden among my bitchin's the answer!
Everything IS going so well!
Awareness level is cranked another notch! Thank you so much!
Exactly. Can be difficult on a second shift over to a positive thinking and letting it permeate all the experiences in my life. It may well be that I need to detoxify and clean out all the emotions wrapped stagnated for a much freer to deal with important things. We do not deal with obstacle said a speaker from the stage at the Go Diamond in SF in february
So it was always with people...! Some see the glass as half full - other, that a glass half empty... Everyone makes the choice himself. My choice - the glass as half full! 🙂
Randy,
Thanks to you, others, and my own efforts, my way of thinking and looking at the world becomes more beneficial to myself and the world everyday.
We do not journey alone. That is a lesson that people need to learn, even if they are independent, or striving for independence.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge with the world. Thank you for having the courage to be blunt when people don't want to hear it. Thank you for being supportive when people need it.
Love it! I know the feeling too well of constantly reminding people of their good fortune when they fight for their limitations and rant about all their misfortune. One guy I know keeps telling me about how he is just waiting for the letter from his landlord asking him to levee as he is the last tenant in a building which is now largely office space. I have told him umpteen times hat we attract what we think about so he should be grateful for his magnificent apartment instead of fearful but he insists on expressing his deepest fears. For you and I this is such a no brainer but somehow these people are so gripped by fear they don't seem to have the strength to do otherwise.
Also the dog story ---- Someone asks Esther Hicks the most profound question ever.
" Why do dogs risk getting bugs in their eyes sticking their head out of a car window?"
She is thrilled to be faced with life's most profound question ever and replies
"Because the bugs in the eyes are a small price to pay for the exhilaration of the ride and that we all felt the same way coming into our physical existence and decided the ride would be worth it."
Dude,
Every since you've been Mentoring me you've had had some outside of the box thought processes that have been both thought provoking & insightful.
Thanks for sharing this one.
- WL
http://WarrenLittle.Net