The second thing a leader must do is.....

Get rid of all negativity in his/her life.

This is a very difficult one. We are naturally negative beings. In his amazing book What to Say When You Talk to Yourself, Dr. Shad Helmstetter lets us in on a few absolutely terrifying statistics. Up to 77% of our thoughts are naturally negative. This is made up largely in part by the fact that by the time we turn 18 years old, we will have been told "No" more than 100,000 times.

Now I have no idea where or how Dr. Helmstetter got these statistics, but if you ask me, they are pretty staggering. 100,000 "Noes?" And in the most important time of our lives developmentally?? No wonder 77% of our natural thoughts are negative!! How in the world are we supposed to live positively when the world is just telling us no, no, no, no, no, no no??!?!???

Now, as you know if you've been reading my blog, in Dr. Henry Cloud's 9 Things a Leader Must Do, the first thing a leader must do is invest in his/her dreams and passions in life. Now riddle me this, sir/madam reader......won't someone who has received so many noes in their adolescence and whose thoughts are 77% negative (as a direct or indirect result of so many "Noes"), wouldn't said person have difficulties pursuing and investing in their dreams and goals? With negativity in our lives, we can kiss our goals, dreams, and passions goodbye.

We do, however, have tools to kiss negativity goodbye. Our very brain is a very important tool in this. Our brain is an amazing creature. It can imagine events so vividly that we feel like whatever we imagined actually happened. So, if we imagine our lives in a positive light vividly for 15 minutes every day, it'll be pretty difficult to keep us from reaching our goals and dreams, and becoming the leaders that we want to become. If, however, our days are filled with negative thoughts about life, our future, our friends, etc., then we probably will have difficulties even coming up with dreams that we are capable of fulfilling. Negative self talk leads to a negative outlook, which can lead to poor self-esteem. When you have poor self-esteem, it is not only difficult to realize your potential, it can be downright impossible for you to even realize that you HAVE potential.

Let me be the first to say, my dear reader that YOU CAN DO ANYTHING YOU SET YOUR MIND TO! If someone has done it before, it can be done again! Maybe you'll have to get creative. Maybe you'll have to ask for help. Maybe you'll have to get lucky. But, with a positive attitude, even if you have a failure, you will realize that failures are just stepping stones to success! Success is difficult! Go out and fail a little. But just make sure you're being positive about it.

Here's my challenge for you. For 15 minutes a day, vividly imagine the life you want. See it. Live it. Feel it. Smell it. Use all your senses. Avoid all negativity. When your brain thinks something like "this is stupid" (and it will, we're only human) just say to yourself, "Thank you for your opinion, but I'm choosing to think differently." I bet if you took on my challenge, you'd be able to realize not only that you have potential, but you'd be able to fulfill that potential to the fullest.

~Hammy