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Having a Positive Mindset, Christmas Happiness
By Sean M | December 6, 2009
Having a Positive Mindset helps you make it even in the worst of situations. I had a situation happen to me over the weekend which brought this point home. My wife and I were getting ready to put our Christmas tree up and decorate the house this past Saturday evening, I even passed up being on the FSMM Webinar ( which is such a great business planning tool by the way) when I ran into a major problem.
I moved a chair we have in the corner of our living room to make room to put up the Christmas tree up. I then picked up a board game we had stored under the chair. When I picked up the board game I noticed the bottom of it was soaked. I did not know what was wrong at first, and felt the carpet and the entire carpet in the area was drenched.
I then began to look around to find out where the water was coming from and could 
not see any water damage on the roof or walls. It was at this point that I realized that the hot water heater was behind the wall in my wife’s closet. I made my way to the closet and after a few minutes of making my way through the jungle of clothing and shoes I found the hot water heater and in the bottom of the drain pan there was lots of water. Me and the wife began to inspect the closet and found no water in the closet just on the other side in the living room by the corner wall. It was around 7:00 p.m. on a Saturday night and we did not have a clue what to do.
My mind started to go crazy and worry about mold, how much it was going to cost, can we get a person out on the weekend, is the house going to cave in, the usual dreadful thoughts you have in a hectic situation. It was at this point I caught myself and started to think what can we do to take ACTION and fix this issue now. We looked on the internet to find out how to clean up the water, prevent mold and called a repair that night to come out on Sunday.
Now I think back to about 3 years ago before I started to read about gaining a positive mindset and began to plant the seeds of positivity in my mind. I would have gotten angry, cursed, and called everyone I knew to complain about the problem. Instead I looked at what could be the positive here. It was not long until I found a few positives to this situation.
My wife and I have been wanting to get new hardwood floors installed in our house for about 3 years but never did due to cost and the hassle of moving furniture. The repair man said we would have to replace the carpet so we went to Home Depot Sunday and bought hardwood floors and are having them installed next week. The second thing that was positive is since we are going to have all the furniture moved out of the living room we are going to have it painted something else we have been wanting to do but never did.
If you have a problem not matter how small or big there is always as positive, if you look at if from all angles. It is really in how you view the situation and what mindset you are in. Yes, I could have written on Facebook, twitter, E-mailed, and called everyone to complain about how such a horrible weekend I had. Now I am going to tell everyone I am getting new flooring and am having my living room painted. This is the McNeely’s Christmas gift to ourselves, due to a situation that I could have looked at as being tragic.
Staying positive and looking for the good in all situations is how life should be lived, not trying to find the negative in it. Turn the negative into a positive and you will be a happy more productive person. You can bring this to your business life also, sometimes bad things are going to happen but even they have a positive, if you change your point of view.
I really wanted to share this with everyone because I finally saw how far I have come in the past 3 years in mindset growth. This might seem weird to some people but for me it shows that my hard work and daily routine now turned into habits has paid off. Instead of having my weekend ruined and telling my tragic story to everyone on Monday morning. I am now looking forward to getting my house back together and our Christmas tree up next Saturday night.
Merry Christmas everyone and Happy Holidays.
Sean McNeely
Myrtle Beach, SC
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Topics: Inspiration & Motivation | 5 Comments »
December 7th, 2009 at 5:04 am
Another way of putting it is to ask the question, “Where is the blessing in this?”
Ya have to look pretty carefully sometimes to find it!
Happy Christmas!!
December 7th, 2009 at 6:59 am
Thanks Alex,
It is amazing how so many incidents in our lives are truly “Blessings”, without being obvious.
This has been a medically challenging, lifestyle changing year for Shirley and I..
But we ended up finding a Home that is providing an enjoyable Lifestyle at considerably less Cost,
allowing us to do things not afforded for years
December 7th, 2009 at 7:47 am
Thanks for sharing Sean’s article. It’s amazing the difference mindset can make in any situation in life. And we have that choice to look for all the negatives and be miserable or search for all the positives and live above our circumstances and filled with joy. But it’s equally amazing how many people choose the former.
Diane Stephenson´s last blog ..DIRECTIONS FOR LIFE
December 7th, 2009 at 8:45 am
Our problems are often as big as we make them to be! It’s great to hear how you turned what could have been a disaster into a opportunity!
Brad Parler´s last blog ..The Flip to be on the Network – next year
March 2nd, 2010 at 8:48 pm
Mindset really is the key, isn’t it??
Half full or half empty; an old story but a constant challenge.
Thank you, Sean, for helping us make a better choice in our own lives!