The other day in the car, a favorite song of mine came on. "Girls," I said to my daughters, "this is the same group who sings the song you like from that movie, 'School of Rock.' "
The instant after I said it, the very song I was talking about started playing. "Do you know what this means?" I asked excitedly. "It means we're connected to the universe! We asked for the song and it came on."
Sophia, my 5-year-old, was controlled in her happiness. "I didn't know I could do that," she said.
I believe that a positive attitude leads to happiness and success. If you want something enough and focus your energy on it, my wife Tanya and I tell our daughters, you can have and achieve whatever you desire. I call it "connecting to the universe."
In the real world, though, no one is successful 100 percent of the time. Children need to learn that adversity happens and the skills to deal with it. So I wonder: by promoting the ideas of unfailing positivity and a belief that one can manifest anything, am I setting up my kids for disaster?
I discussed this with a friend of mine whose outlook is different from my own. He works in the financial industry, dealing daily with billions of dollars in assets. He says that realists are idealists with experience and attributes his philosophy of enthusiastic caution to his job requirements. In analyzing countless statistics and measures that contribute to the global economy, he needs to be prudent. If he ignores significant data because of their unpleasantness, he runs the risk of financial disaster for his clients.
As a physical therapist, I have to concentrate on my patients' abilities - what they can do. If I heed the deficits more than I capitalize on the strengths, my clients may not realize their potential. Consequently, much of my life is spent convincing people of what is possible. And while the realism of certain conditions is unavoidable, I've learned that the human spirit is limitless when a desire is strong enough.
Our argument illustrates the depth of such philosophical differences. Some of my friends think I'm nuts, that my ideas run from naive, new-age mumbo jumbo to dangerous idealism. They joke at how my children are being set up for a life of rude awakenings. But I'd rather my kids be optimistic and be disappointed every once in a while than spend their lives living in a vacuum of pessimism. The results of positivity and belief in self-determinism, from Martin Luther King Jr. to Tim Tebow, are undeniable.
On the way home, Ella, my 8-year-old, asked me to change the radio stations. "I want to hear that song. I'm trying to connect to the universe," she said. I obliged her but, alas, no luck. "Why isn't it working?" she asked, sounding sad.
The beginning of the end, perhaps?
That night we manifested our song from iTunes and played it endlessly. The universe works in mysterious ways.
Nice article Andrew
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