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August 16, 2004
positive thinking: the anti-peeve
Everybody knows that positive thinking is better than a negative outlook. I should provide some facts and statistics on this, and studies done by Johns Hopkins U, but I won't because everybody knows this is true. Positive thinking is just better. Negative thinking is not as good. Positive...Negative. The words themselves almost tell the story.
But sometimes we have to think negatively, because things just, well, you know, they just suck. So what do you do? You can't always control the things that suck, and you can't go through life pretending they don't exist. How do you resolve these two apparently conflicting life forces?
The answer, my friends and gentle readers, is the anti-peeve. That's right. You may ask (go ahead, I'll wait), "what is an anti-peeve?" And I might answer, "What isn't an anti-peeve?" But I won't, because that sort of snide, negative response doesn't solve anything. So here it is: an anti-peeve is just the same observation, except flipped around and re-expressed in positive terms. For instance, I don't grouse about high gas prices anymore. No, instead I lean against my fender and observe (with a wry smile), "I just love how a year ago gas prices were way, WAY lower than they are today."
Another example; I don't complain about how bad my drivers' license photo looks. Instead I say, "I am just so pleased with how I looked on certain other days when I wasn't having my drivers' license photo taken. In fact, I'm thrilled, because I look better than that nearly all the time!"
The cool thing is that this method is as useful when things are going great as it is when they aren't so great. Whenever I win at card games, I always say, "I'm delighted that I finally won ONCE after playing with you damned card sharps for hours!"
Whenever you get an A in a particularly difficult class, you can say, "Oooh, now that's really going to bring up my average." If anyone is actually listening to you, continue, "Isn't it awesome how practically every other prof I've ever had isn't such a total ass?"
So get off your often not lazy duff, get out there, and starting using the anti-peeve. And when folks ask how it's working out, answer, "I just love how my life hasn't gotten any better, but now I'm thinking much more positively about how everything FREAKIN' BLOWS CHUNKS!" Be sure to smile sweetly afterward.
I know you'll soon find it's much easier to be positive when you think about your Pandora's Box of troubles in terms of anti-peeves. As for me, I know it's going to be wonderful to not have to hear everybody bitching and whining nonstop all day anymore.
Posted by joel at August 16, 2004 08:12 PM
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Comments
Sure, sure, it's an old standby of mine; I used to say to my youth group kids when we were pitching tents in Key West in August, "Whew, sure am glad it's hot out here." They would screw up their foreheads and ask, "why?"
"Cause otherwise," I would sagely say, "we'd be freezin' our butts off."
(card sharps, huh. kinda like acid holes?)
Posted by: El Fid at August 17, 2004 08:16 AM
I'm laughing and you're cute. (I have no anti-peeves to post 'cuz I just woke up.)
Posted by: honest + popular at August 17, 2004 08:32 AM
Sure is a good thing you're writing this stuff out so I don't have to... Keep your disappointed chin up!
Posted by: k_sra at August 17, 2004 10:02 AM
I sure am glad I clicked on your blog.
((no, really, I am)) :)
Good stuff, great pics too.
Posted by: Diva Drip at August 17, 2004 09:05 PM
Thanks, Diva. Also, thanks to you I discovered the photoblogring, and joined. Blogging works when you network; I dig.
Posted by: Joel at August 18, 2004 01:18 PM
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