I was reading this post over at The Daily Love, and it was like getting hit over the head with an anvil a la Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner. Parts of it were like reading my own life story. Think Positive 30 started out on Live Journal. One of my dear friends and I were kvetching about how miserable our lives were and she commented that she was feeling really negative. To compensate, she was going to post one positive thought a day in her LJ. I thought it was an amazing idea and I made a community on Live Journal called Think Positive 30. I figured there were probably other people that felt that way. The community was small (very small). It’s concept was post a positive thought for 30 consecutive days and get in the habit of thinking or finding positive things in your day. Then we got made a spotlight community on Live Journal and membership EXPLODED. I used to try and comment on everybody’s posts and be supportive, but when we were spotlighted, it stopped being fun and became hard work.
Instead, I made a website – which is not work (mostly because I’m not really good at it) and created a mailing list that lets people sign up to receive a “Daily Positive Thought” email Monday thru Friday. But it still wasn’t fun anymore and I couldn’t figure out why.
I changed the format of the website to what you see now, and started writing small blog posts or reflections on each Daily Positive Thought, and I started sharing other articles and blog posts I’ve found. It still hasn’t been fun, and I think today after reading Mastin Kipp’s post, I finally figured out why. I’ve been doing this hoping to have a positive influence on OTHER PEOPLE. I’ve been so concerned about how others will perceive what I’ve written and done, that I haven’t given much thought or effort into applying them to my own life. Sitting here and thinking about it makes me realize how very foolish I’ve been. Why would I think I could “fix” anybody else when I haven’t tried to “fix” myself?
So I’m going to keep doing the Daily Positive Thought and I’ll probably keep blogging about it, but I’m going to try and apply it more to myself, and focus on being grateful for this wonderful opportunity to share.
