Tell Yourself Positive Stories

The rain poured down as Bubba and Matt walked around the yard the next morning. “So how do you like the rain?” Bubba asked.

“Oh, I love it,” Matt said enthusiastically. “I love getting all wet and then shaking the water off my body.”

“I feel the same way. I also love how the rain cleanses everything. But you know, not everyone feels the way we do,” Bubba said while pointing to another dog across the yard. “See Niro over there. He hates the rain. Always yells and gets angry when it rains—grumbles that he's all wet and sticky.”

“It's interesting that two dogs can experience the same event and perceive it very differently,” Matt said.

“Yep,” said Bubba. “One dog loves the rain; the other dog hates it. Their perspectives determine their thoughts, feelings, and, ultimately, how they act for the rest of the day. It's like that with everything in life. How we perceive people, events, and situations determines our reality. That's why I often say that we don't live our lives based on reality. Nope. We live our lives based on our perspective and our perception of reality.”

“That's why it's so important to develop a positive perspective, isn't it?” said Matt, knowing he had experienced the impact of a positive perspective firsthand. When he laughed and smiled, he changed his perspective from negative to positive. When he practiced gratitude throughout the day, instead of complaining about everything, he saw the world through the eyes of gratitude and it changed his reality.

“That's right,” Bubba said. “How you see the world defines your world. So if you want to live a positive life you must feed the positive dog with positive perspectives—and I'm convinced that these positive perspectives are influenced by the positive stories we tell ourselves.”

“What kind of stories?” Matt asked.

“Big stories and little stories,” answered Bubba. “First off, each one of us is telling ourselves a big story—a main story that defines our life. Like in the movies, we all have a central theme and certain genre that defines our life. Some people and dogs define their lives with a negative story. For them it's a drama or a horror story. For others, their lives are like a positive movie such as a love story, adventure, or inspirational tale. It's important to identify the type of movie we are living because the story we tell ourselves defines our perspective and the lives we live.”

Matt thought for a moment and tried to identify the movie he was living. He realized that his movie had been a drama but now it was becoming more of an adventure.

“Can we change our story?” asked Matt, hoping it was possible.

“Of course you can,” said Bubba. “The great news is that you can change your story anytime you want from a negative story to a positive story. If you are living a drama then you can decide to change it to an adventure. If you are living a horror story you can decide to change it to an inspirational tale. Think about it: In the horror story and inspirational tale, the main character gets knocked down. In the drama the victim stays down, but in the inspirational tale the victim becomes a hero, gets back up, and armed with optimism and belief in a positive future, takes the actions necessary to create it.”

It was such an important lesson that Matt wanted to be sure he'd remember, so he made a few mental notes.

“It's not just big stories that create our perspective and define our life. We also define our life by all the little stories we tell ourselves every day,” Bubba said.

“What are little stories?” Matt asked.

“Little stories are our beliefs and philosophies about life. You tell yourself many little stories throughout your life based on your belief system, attitude, and approach to life and these stories feed you either negatively or positively and define how you think and act. For example, one dog tells himself that he'll never make it out of the shelter, while another dog believes that it will happen when the time is right. One story is filled with despair and the other, hope. Or, consider a dog that believes in overcoming adversity to pursue her dreams, while another dog believes in settling for what life gives her. Their stories and approach to life will define their perspectives, how they live, and the lives they create. Or, consider a dog that once complained all the time but then started telling himself little stories filled with gratitude.

“Like me,” said Matt.

“Just like you, Matty,” said Bubba with a big smile on his face. “A few days of feeding the positive dog and you've already noticed a difference. Now imagine if you had more strategies to feed the positive dog with positive stories and perspectives. Imagine if you did this every day for the rest of your life. How much more positive would you be?”

“A lot more,” said Matt who was excited to learn more.

“You bet,” said Bubba. “Your positivity would soar and that's why I'm going to share some more with you. You don't have to feed yourself with negative stories and negative perspectives anymore. You can change from negative to positive as fast as I can say ‘Lassie.’ I have found that you can change your negative perspectives to positive perspectives by just changing or choosing a few different words. Yep, just by changing a few words you can feed the positive dog instead of the negative dog.”