Positivity, Please…
Wednesday, September 23, 2009 - HollywoodDave
OK so not to go all New Age-y on you guys, but lately I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about the power of positive thinking. Not in “The Secret”-kinda way, in which we specifically manifest certain outcomes based on fervent visualization, but rather more of an all-purpose stress reliever. To be honest, I’ve noticed as I’ve grown the past couple years that my thought patterns have become increasingly negative and as an adult, its my responsibility not to be held hostage any thoughts or behaviors that hold me back from being the best person I can be.
By negative I don’t mean fixating on doom-and-gloom scenarios for my future as much as just catching myself in the moment expecting the worst despite the odds being just as much in my favor as against. Somewhere along the way, the glass became half-empty rather than half-full. I didn’t notice it for the longest time because at any given moment if I were to think about my hopes, dreams and aspirations for the future, of course I knew I would continue to strive each and every day towards success in my goals not only as a professional gambler, but as an actor, artist, writer, and producer as well. Poker and blackjack to me has always just been a glorified survival job (albeit one with incredible perks!), but at the end of the day I’ve never stopped my pursuit of success in the arts.
Thing is, despite having such a clear picture of the not-so-distant future, along the way the present stopped looking so perfect. For awhile it was easy to blame it on random negative circumstances around me, like running bad in poker or a death in the family. But recently I’ve been coming to terms with the fact that my default, present-moment position is one of skepticism and doubt — rather than the positive view I have for my future. And i’m starting to realize that in order for the future positivity to come about, the present must match it with equal intensity.
In poker this manifests as assuming we will win the big one “one day,” but whenever we are in a coinflip for our stack in the present moment, thinking we will obv be on the wrong side. Or that our all ins with flush or straight draws will inevitably miss. And so this elusive perfect future, which is challenging enough to achieve, suddenly has the additional roadblocks of our present moment negative thought processes as well. Those overcards or flush draws are going to happen or not, on their own merits — so why complicate the situation with unnecessary burdens along the way?
Positive thinking is really about positively increasing one’s daily quality of life. The future will take care of itself (and hopefully one has the biggest and boldest of dreams to strive toward), so changing our present-moment thoughts to more positive ones at the very least makes us happier & certainly couldn’t hurt our chances of achieving our dreams one bit! And given the choice to live each moment to its fullest and brightest or not, i choose the positive approach. Or at least I’m consciously trying to, anyway…. our pattern of thoughts doesn’t change overnight. It took years to develop these mental crutches and I’m hoping with a little effort it won’t take nearly as long to rebound.
So that’s been my week, folks. Deep thoughts & a strong desire to change for the better. Amazing what a couple days in LA will do for ya! 
rock on –
-hd.
Tags: Hollywood Dave, New Age, Poker Poker Poker, positivity, The Secret
