A Black Ball that is Orange in Colour

Sometimes even a casual conversation turns out to be a lesson. A few days ago, a friend asked me… we read and hear so much about ‘Positive Thinking’. If I google, I will get thousands of links hundreds of benefits of positive thinking. But then, how can mere positive thinking lead to positive things? If there is a black ball on the table, and I simply stare towards it and think that it’s an orange ball, will that ball be orange? If not, then why didn’t thinking positive help?


My reply to this argument was that this is where acceptance comes into picture. If we can’t change the colour of ball from black to orange, despite our positive thoughts, then accept that the ball is black.

After a little more introspection, my friend came with a better answer. Positive thinking is not just thinking, but going towards positive things, than what you already were. To explain the same, my friend gave an analogy of the x-y axis which we learnt way back in class 8. The X and the Y axis have positive figures on one side and negative figures on another. Suppose you are standing on the X axis at -5, and your goal is to be at +5, then positive thinking is thinking how close you are towards the positive figures. If you are at -2, you are still on the negative figures, but 3 steps ahead and closer to positivity! That is the whole essence of positive thinking.

Another aspect of positive thinking came to my mind as the discussion moved on... It’s also about positive action. Positive thinking creates positive thoughts in our mind. The upshot of these thoughts should be a positive action. Going back to the example we started with, if you see a black ball on the table, positive thinking will create a thought that the ball should be orange. Then it’s time for some positive action. How can you make that ball orange? May be buy paint and a brush and paint it orange. Of course it requires some efforts, but the outcome is the orange ball. If you don’t have time and money to spend then think about going towards positivity. May be wiping the ball clean till it shines, it will look better than the ugly black ball that was lying on the table. And if you have tried everything, and you cannot do anything about it, accept that the ball is black and learn to love it. But that doesn't mean you should stop thinking about how you can make the ball orange..!J

So then, it boils down to a simple formula -

Positive Attitude = Positive Thinking + Positive Actions