Experimenting with the Positive
So, while at work last week, I attended a little training session that was meant to show us that each of us has what we need to become what we would like to be, it is a simple matter of asking the right questions and viewing situations from the correct perspective.
Of course, this sounds too simple, and so most of us would tend to approach such “quick fix” ideology with a healthy dose of skepticism.
I’ll get to the point immediately: When you are in any situation, see if you can find the positive perspective.
I think this is not always possible, but let me use a simple example: Someone in class pointed out that certain situations are merely objective reality. Of course, this is never true, but his example of such an objective reality was particularly weak — the current state of the baseball team known as the Baltimore Orioles. My classmate contended that the Orioles truly “suck,” and that this was an objective reality, not simply a matter of perspective.
Now, not to dwell on sports, but this makes for a good example of asking better questions and looking for the positive perspective.
So, let’s analyze this so-called “objective reality” of the Baltimore Orioles.
I would assume, that, for most folks in the United States of America (USA), “professional baseball” refers to what Americans think of as Major League Baseball (the American League and the National League — each league puts forth a “champion” each year to play the other champion in what they call the “World Series.” Of course, the playoff process completely ignores the MLB minor league teams, and all of the fine teams from other leagues around the world). Now, the first perspective in play is that Major League Baseball somehow represents ALL of professional baseball, which it doesn’t.
So, of the small portion of professional baseball that MLB represents, it has thirty (30) teams, of which the Baltimore Orioles are one. These 30 teams are split up into six divisions, with a few teams in each division. At this moment, the Orioles belong to the American League “EAST” division, and they have a win-loss percentage of .455 — the best team in the division, the Boston Red Sox, have a win-loss percentage of .614 (.159 ahead of the Orioles); however, the best team in the league, the Los Angeles Dodgers, have a win-loss percentage of .636 (.181 ahead of the Orioles).
So, within the narrowly defined focus of Major League Baseball’s American League “EAST” Division, the Orioles “suck,” in the sense that they have the worst win-loss percentage. If we expand the focus to include all of Major League Baseball, then the Washington Nationals “suck,” because they have a win-loss percentage of .299; compared to this team, the Orioles are practically a first place team, since they are 156 percentage points ahead — almost exactly the same as they are behind the Boston Red Sox. In fact, looking around the league, the Orioles are statistically ahead of seven other teams. With a slight re-arranging of the divisions, the Orioles, at their current performance levels, would be in first place, and in contention to compete in the so-called “World Series.”
Another perspective is to compare the teams to what else is happening in the world — for example, in the Japanese leagues, Yomiuri has the best win-loss percentage: .657. This is better than the Dodgers. So, do the Dodgers now “suck” because they are not as good? or is it the actual percentage point spread that is the criteria?
Anyway … the point is that what we often view as “objective reality” truly has alternative perspectives.
The same can be said of our own lives. As an experiment for the last four or five days, I’ve been focusing on the positive. Each time something seemingly negative has happened, I’ve paused for a moment, and then considered if I could possibly re-state what I’ve experienced in some positive way. In many cases, I ended up having a good laugh instead of getting increasingly frustrated.
So, I’m going to continue to try this and see how long it lasts. Give it a go.
