Happy Monday from just south of the path of totality.

A few weeks ago I wrote on being intentional with our actions, but as I thought about it more, there are so many different ways to be intentional. It could be with our loyalties, or being positive. So over the next few weeks I will highlight a few different ideas on being intentional, today is being positive.

A lot of people will be watching the eclipse today, hope that you all use real eclipse glasses and that you travel safely afterwards as well.

A staff member asked me this weekend if I thought there was any reason to be positive, and if I should pay attention to what’s going on in the world instead. This got me thinking a lot about the perception of positive thinking. In this world perception equals fact far too often, whats true isn't given the spotlight, only how it seems. 

Being positive does not mean that you are naïve or that you gloss over the fact that there is so much trouble in the world today, being positive means that you don’t allow yourself to focus solely on the negative. Even on the best days you have, there will be negative factors, but on the best days there is so much else to focus on that we sometimes hardly notice. It is on the days when we aren’t doing the best that we need to intentionally be positive.

Today we all have something to be thankful for, and you can’t be thankful and be negative at the same time, you have to feed the side that you want to win out. If you want to be positive you need to feed the positivity. It won’t always be easy, as I mentioned before, there will be days when it’s a struggle and you aren’t sure how you can be positive when everything around seems to go against you, but in those moments if you can focus on the things that ARE going your way you will PUSH through.

Last weekend while at my cousin’s wedding, one of Dre’s uncles was talking about how to face the troubles we face; he used the acronym PUSH as a way to make it through life, he stated that PUSH stood for Pray Until Something Happens. I know some of you don’t believe in prayer, or God for that matter. I know that sometimes I struggle with prayers that in my eyes aren’t answered, but like my Poppie always tells me “You don’t know everything Joshua”. Hindsight is 20/20 and there have been many times when looking back I see that what I was wanting wasn’t in my best interest like I thought it was. These days I pray for simple things, like energy, patience, positivity and wisdom. I feel that each of us has the power to make our day better and that we can affect the ones around us positively or negatively depending on the decisions we make.

Today and this week take stock in all the things that you have that are blessings, it might help to write them out. These things will help you focus on the positive, and when you are positive you can impact others around you.

Have a great week, if you want to!