The impact of Attitude and the power of positive thinking


The longer I live the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude to me is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company, a church, a home. The remarkable thing is you have a choice every day regarding the attitude you will embrace for that day. We can not change the past, we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable... the only thing we can do is play on the one thing we have and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you... because you are in charge of your attitude...

The above is a message one of my mother's work friends shared with her. She printed it out for me and told me to put it on my work wall (where I kept the short cut info for the work I was doing as an at home customer service agent) to help keep me focused with a positive attitude. Not because I had a bad attitude, but because we both embraced a spiritual view of life 15 years ago that expanded our attitude towards life. Through sharing and discussing various reading materials, it has helped us develop a deeper understanding of the purpose of life.

There were many days (weeks, months) when I first started working as a live agent where I was finding it more and more difficult to stay unswervingly positive (dealing with network issues, ever changing processes, angry/irate customers) and that message helped me through the more challenging days (not to mention keeping me in the right frame of mind thereby helping to increase my sales) not just at work but in my relationships as well.


HOW IS THE IMPACT OF ATTITUDE EFFECTED BY THE POWER OF POSITIVE THINKING?


In one of the many books we've shared, it is said "nothing is true except that which is true for you" meaning to me that although we as individuals share a multitude of experiences with others, we ultimately perceive the world around us from an individual point of view.

Our five senses (or six if you subscribe to the idea) responds to various stimuli, the information is transmitted as electrical signals to specialized areas of the cerebral cortex (outer area of the cerebrum) to be processed into sensations such as vision, hearing and touch then the visual cortex (part of the brain at the back of the head) forms an interpretation of the outside world. Like a computer, it is through programming (early childhood development, life experience, education, media, cultural/familial values, ect.) we form models that we use to define the interpretation and as such what we feel is true. It's how belief alters your perception of reality.

The fact that what we see as true can be influenced by so much, helps us decide the positions we take on everything from attitude towards love, gender roles, parenting, religion, stereotypes, politics and work. Remember "Attitude to me is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do...?" I see that to basically mean that we as individuals ultimately define our own truth (even if we're too afraid, ashamed, hesitant) to admit it. We often bend to pressure from the media, our families, our peers, politics, religion or social convention instead of embracing our instincts, intuition, thoughts or feelings, imposing limitations instead of fostering free thinking.

Luckily, we're living in an age where individuality is being celebrated (although oft times at the expense of some cultural values) but it does make us open to the multitude of possibilities. Those that have embraced their individual attitudes rather than just going along with the herd are responsible for everything from the civil rights and gender equality movement, to oiling the machine of progress with the latest invention or technological innovation.



IS USING THE POWER OF POSITIVE THINKING FOR SUCCESS A NEW IDEA?



Not at all. As a matter of fact the idea of impressing the subconscious with positive thoughts to achieve success is an ancient principle. Everyone throughout history that achieved greatness, broke barriers and effected change in human society understood this principal. Whether through education or years of trial and error, persistent and focused thoughts achieved results. That's always been the difference between landlords and field hands, generals and foot soldiers, executives and assembly line workers. Plainly and simply, until the mid 20th century, there was no room in the labour force for the dreamers.

Bosses needed solid workers who's only desire was to follow the program of working hard, save their money so they can get married, buy a house, have some kids, grow old then pass quietly and peacefully surrounded by their children and grandchildren. Sounds good doesn't it? Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the rancher's chillin' in his air conditioned mansion, sipping on cocktails with the wife and country club friends debating which private school has the best rowing program, while the non dreamer is stuck in perpetual servitude, too busy labouring and envying the life they're too asleep to even dream about. The few who do dream of a better life are unfortunately surrounded by "realists" 8-12 hours a day, non dreamers so entrenched by the old world programming they seem to make a mission out of helping keep the dreamers heads out of the clouds.

However... the attitudes towards the formulas to living abundantly are changing, but with humanity, change is often slow and difficult, especially when an idea (such as Network Marketing) has been demonized much in the same way so called pagan faiths have been for the last 2000 years... yet, living in the information age, millions of people are embracing what is now understood to be ancient principals as many of these principals were actually grafted into and helped form many of the themes and philosophies that are part of the major religions today.

Faith, unlike ideas are nearly impossible to change. The great thing is that ideas can grow and influence change. One of the many ancient world ideas bubbling up to the surface in the last decade, like impressing the subconscious mind with ideas of success through the power of positive thinking is becoming more popular each day.



THE POWER OF POSITIVE THINKING NOW



We're slowly learning that the things once considered to be out of our hands are (and have always been) firmly within our control. We just didn't know it. Until now we simply didn't have the tools or understanding of how certain principles (ie. the Law of attraction) worked. Everything was in the hands of the Creator, and giving up the ultimate scapegoat who works in mysterious ways has been a near impossibility. Why accept personal responsibility when you can blame the Creator for the things that go wrong in life? Not to say the Creator does not play a role in our lives... Faith, like politics is still a very sensitive subject, so I will draw the line here (although I may do a blog on that another time)

Remember... "the only thing we can do is play on the one thing we have and that is our attitude." Ask yourself a few questions...

Can the power of positive thinking bring changes in your life?

What attitude will you embrace today?

If you live a life of truth, will it be someone else's truth... or your own?

What can you do to use the impact of Attitude and the power of positive thinking to improve your life? 
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Two Broke Girls: Girl power in the new millennium

I like the show Two Broke Girls. There, I said it. It's a live show comedy following the lives of two waitresses in New York City. It's an honest and funny look at Girl power in the new millennium and promotes empowering young women. I'm like the average guy (although I prefer to play sports than sit and watch) but I like guy things. My fiance and I share a love of Sci-Fi movies and TV programs and literature and are very choosy about what we watch together (I say together because of course we are individuals and there are shows we watch independently to spare each other from having to sit through a program the other doesn't like (I'm not a fan of reality TV, but that's subject for another blog)
Now, I'm open to new experiences and I've taken the road less travelled (I can sit through a "chick flick" if it's more entertaining than soapy) but after being exposed to one of my fiances previously favourite shows Gilmore Girls, I found it smart, entertaining (although all the characters tended to speak so quickly I felt my head could explode or suffer a brain crash) and in the last 15 years I've gotten in touch with my feminine side and have a deeper appreciation of all the difficulties women have had to endure since the dawn of civilization. It's been a long road towards equality, and though we still have a ways to go (and a glass ceiling to shatter) there's no doubt women have become more empowered in this age and that's a good thing.

Women have had to overcome education restrictions, voting restrictions, employment restrictions, military service restrictions and relationship restrictions, and are much stronger for it. To me, no show reflects how far women have come than Two Broke Girls. It's smart, funny, sassy and watching it I oft times feel like I'm watching and listening to my fiance and her best friend. There has never been a show that truly allows viewers into the private world of women's conversation during prime time, due to the behavioural restrictions (societies expectations of how a good girl should behave) most of those conversations have been are kept for their ears only, it touches on everything from family values, interpersonal relationships, employment challenges, the effects of economic downturn and sexuality all tongue and cheek and all from the female point of view. A point of view that's no longer being restricted by the sensors.

Like most guys, I resisted the show at first (despite the fact I did find it quite entertaining) until I realized what I was watching. I've seen it many times over the course of my 15 year relationship when hanging out with my fiance and her friends, now I get to see it on TV and feel the 1/2 hour is time well spent. For guys who have no idea what goes through the hearts and minds of today's woman, I say Two Broke Girls is a flat out, no holds barred experience of girl power in the new millennium. If you want an insiders look at how today's woman views her place in the changing world, it's information gold.

P.S. CBS announced in March that 2 Broke Girls has been renewed for a second season. The new sitcom has had a successful first season, earning the distinction of being the season's Number 1 new comedy in viewers and key demographics. In the GTA (Canada) it's shown Monday nights on City TV.

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Beat mixing: Old school vs. New school

   My journey being a disk jockey began in the 80's when at 13 years old I started making mixed tapes of music I recorded off of the radio. My favourite place to get the latest urban music back then was 88.1 CKLM FM. By the time I was in high school I had learned to edit audio tapes nearly seamlessly. I was mostly into hip hop, but started listening to house music back in 1987.

   When house first became popular, it was a form of music embraced by the preppies for whom it wasn't an extreme departure from new wave they already listened to. As a hip hopper, listening to what the community considered "white" music wasn't very appealing. It wasn't until going to a school dance where I saw a girl I had a crush on grooving to it (although I know listening to it through loud club speakers for the first time vs. a fellow student's Walkman was the fundamental reason) I gave it another look.

  Then, 88.1 began playing house on Sunday afternoons and I incorporated it into my mixed tape selections. The combination of learning house music's true origins (Chicago & NYC's urban/gay underground scene) and it being no more than the flavour of the month for the preps, along with hip hop artists making house/dance versions of their songs (ie. the Jungle Brothers, Chub Rock, Big Daddy Kane) and the decline of hip hop's message as a voice of the community solidified my life long love for house. (I never fail to remind my English cousins about their assumption people would get bored of house music and that it would be forgotten in a year)

   It was about 88-89 when my friends and I developed a taste for beat mixing, starting off with the least expensive 2 channel mixer Radio Shack had to offer. None of us could afford to even consider asking our parents to spend $1200 of their hard earned money for a pair of Techniques 1200 turntables with pitch control (the industry standard then) so we did our best using regular record players and our fingers to slow down or speed up the music's tempo. Very low tech indeed.

   Although we wouldn't have the proper equipment till the mid 90's, we would make the journey to downtown Toronto every few weekends and pick up the latest tracks, slowly building our collection until we were ready to do it right. By the late 90's, the majority of us owned either tech 1200'sor the Gemini equivalent (which really wasn't) and I didn't have the experience of playing at a club till after 2000. I did small house parties, played regularly at Bar Babylon

and a few other venues and even played a boat cruise (my last time playing out with my partner in crime and the cruise organiser Dj Marco) It was the last time because as my friend (and owner of Alpha Planet Records) Joe advised, beat mixing by way of CD turntables was the wave of the future, and once Pioneer created a CD turntable (which quickly became the new industry standard)

   I eventually stopped regularly buying 12" vinyl singles still being sold at regular price although, 1) most Dj's had made the switch to cd's and Mp3, 2) most of the big name record stores had either made the switch or went out of business, 3)who would want to spend $200 at the speciality Dj record store and get less than 15 records averaging $10.99 to $16.99 when you could get even better remixes not available on vinyl for .99 cents each, 3) the music industry was already working on MIDI platforms that play Mp3's.

   I did what any lover of vinyl did. 1) Lived in denial, 2) hoped rumours of a growing movement back towards vinyl would blossom... it didn't BTW, then, 3) gave up thoughts of one day playing out again and bought my last 12" in 2009 ("I remember" by deadmau5 + Kaskade)

I was content to play my old records through channel one and beat mixing with new music from Rogers Dance channels, CD's played through my DVD player or itunes Internet radio on channel two. It was enough for a while, but the more I heard the new music being produced, the more I began to loath my old stuff, trade craft beat mixing 101... partiers always loose it when old songs are mixed in with new only once in a while, and I was playing old stuff every other mix.

   It actually wasn't until Marco picked up the Hercules Dj console a few years ago that I actually saw a light shining in the darkness, and this past summer I got my own Hercules console,

which utilizes a laptop and Dj software Cross 2.1

& plays Mp3s. Not only am I buying new music again, but I finally have the equipment to record, edit/track and burn cds. Don't get me wrong I will always love vinyl... and miss not having the same tactile feeling of spinning vinyl while beat mixing, but the low cost of equipment available, buying new music from the comfort of my living room and having new music to play leaves me with one thing to say to the vinyl record market... RIP.


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gourmet food & wine show

This weekend we went to the gourmet food and wine expo at the Toronto Metro Convention Centre, we enjoyed ourselves but not nearly as much as we did at the wine and cheese tasting in Brampton in March. Apparently they moved the venue from it’s original location and to those of my group that attended last year it was smaller and far more cramped. The isles were so tight it was impossible to see through the crush of people to what was on display on the other side. Although we didn’t have to endure the gauntlet of escalators attendees had to last year, the amount of people crammed into such a confining space made it somewhat uncomfortable (like walking through a jam packed nightclub for ten minutes just to use the bathroom) but the the attendees were all well behaved and in good spirits which in the end made it an enjoyable experience.

My fiance and I are really into wine and cheese and do look forward to the wine and cheese tasting show in Brampton.
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