Have Positive Expectations

Have Positive Expectations

Numerous experiments confirm the truth that when you expect the best, you usually get the best, and when you expect the worst, you usually get that too. This is known as the self-prophesying principle. So, at the start of any new enterprise or at the start of each new day, look forward with expectations of the very best.

“Look to this day:
For it is life, the very life of life;
In its brief course
Lie all the verities and realities of your existence:
The bliss of growth,
The glory of action,
The splendour of beauty.
For yesterday is but a dream,
And tomorrow is only a vision;
But today well liv’d makes every
yesterday a dream of happiness
And every tomorrow a vision of hope.
Look well therefore to this day!
Such is the salutation to the dawn.”
(Kalidasa - Indian dramatist)

Turn Negatives into Positives

Like the man who had too many lemons and turned them into lemonade, or the man who bought snake-infested land and learnt how to turn their skins into shoe-leather, every seeming setback can be turned around and made into a triumph.
This is what Teddy Roosevelt did in the following story.
In 1912, just before the nomination of Teddy Roosevelt as presidential candidate, it was discovered that no one had obtained permission to run off all 3 million pictures of Roosevelt and his running mate, Hiram Johnson. Legal penalties for the copyright violation could be as much as $3 million. But it was too late to turn back. The printing plates were ready. Any changes would cost millions.
The chairman of the campaign committee decided to play a different tack and sent a telegram to the photographer saying,
“Planning to use 3 million copies of the Roosevelt photo. Great publicity opportunity for you. What will you pay for us to use the photos?”
“Appreciate the opportunity,” replied the photographer. “Can only pay $250.”
The chairman replied, “OK. Deal.”