The Positive Continuum

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I want to talk about perspective for a minute.  I want to propose an idea, you can buy into it if you want to, but I want to put something out there that has helped me shape the way I view things, the day to day circumstances I find myself in, and really the bigger picture of my life in general.

If you choose to buy into this idea, the only thing I ask is that you do so without reservation.  You don't buy into it sometimes and then go back to how you have traditionally thought at other times.  You give it an honest effort for a week, just one week, and see how you are better able to handle the onset of certain events in your life.

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So, back to perspective.  I want you to think about a continuum of something--hot to cold, light to dark, fast to slow, etc.  In fact, we'll just stick with those three continuums that I mentioned for right now because branching out too far with this may throw off the backdrop of the idea I am going to propose.  Then again, it may not, but for the sake of control I'll say let's stick to those three--hot to cold, light to dark, fast to slow.

All right, now that we have our continuums, I'd like to point out one underlying theme with them:  the latter of each continuum is simply a minute measure of the former.  Let me clarify.  It is fairly well known that there is not such a thing as cold, but rather what we consider to be cold is in fact simply a lack of heat.  Likewise, darkness is the absence of light.  Finally, a little less commonly discussed is fast and slow, or perhaps, acceleration and deceleration.  In physics it is said that there is no such thing as deceleration, but rather slowing down should be viewed as negative acceleration.  So, in keeping with the theme of the other two continuums, deceleration is the lack of acceleration relative to what there previously was.

Looking at these three continuums again, it could be said that each goes from positive to negative.  However--and this is where I need you to take a baby step towards this ledge with me--the negative is simply a point--possibly an end point, possibly not--on the continuum of the positive.  This means--and I need a little bit bigger step here--that the negative is not a separate entity from the positive, but rather a different amount of the positive.

In other words, the negative is still a positive, just in a lesser dosage.

Reread that last statement.

Yes.  The negative is actually a positive.  Have I lost your trust completely?  Maybe, maybe not.  If you are still with me on this, and I hope you are because this is where it gets fun, I want to extend this idea beyond what can be objectively measured and into the realm of subjective feelings.

Now, science can tell us that introducing specific hormone profiles can repeatedly produce the same emotions.  What I mean is, when you get mad, there is a certain hormonal reaction that takes place beforehand.  Likewise, if you are introduced to that hormone profile while removed from a situation that would normally make you mad, you will still feel mad, you just won't know why.  So it is clear that emotions can be broken down into tangible things.  That's not what I want to talk about, though.

I want to talk about how you and I view events in our lives and the emotional reaction we have to them.  In particular, I want to look at the allegedly negative events in our lives.  I say allegedly because if you buy in to what I've said up to this point and are willing to transfer this idea to all areas of your life without reservation, then those seemingly negative events are, and should be viewed as, positive events.  They are just at a different point in the positive continuum.

Like I said, I want to talk about perspective.

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Try it out for a week.  Every time a seemingly negative event occurs, find the positive in it.  Find where it lies on the positive continuum and approach it as a positive event.

It might not be easy at first.  It might feel like you are doing the situation an injustice by seeing it as positive.  But, with time, by forcing yourself to see things in a positive manner, you may come to start expecting things to work out positively.  And that expectation, that belief that everything is going to be alright, may be all that it takes to get you over the hump and allow you to accomplish what you set out to do.

Be great, my friends.

Your body.  Your training.

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