I’ve always wondered why some people just swim through life seamlessly with a smile on their faces, whilst others always seem to have troubles and the world appears to be against them? Why some say they feel fulfilled, happy with their lives, and appear to have it all, and others always struggle and constantly complain about their circumstances? A book on positive thinking I read a few years ago changed my life. I realised that the happy, the successful, the ones that ‘have it all’ are the ones who think positively at all times.
I read that the first step to living a happy, content, satisfying life is to decide what you want in life. Happiness can mean different things to different people. You might choose to want to have a nice car, a beautiful house, a life partner, happy family, healthy children, successful career, amazing holidays. The choice is limitless. Choose whatever you want. Just be clear about what it is that you want!
The next step is to visualise it. You might choose to have an image of a destination you want to visit on your computer wallpaper or a picture of a car you want to drive pinned above your desk. I love visualisation boards. I cut out pictures of things I want to have, photos of places I want to visit from magazines. Then stick them all on a cork board. And I love figures. I write down how much I want to earn, what turnover I want my business to have, how many placements I want my company to make. I put these figures up on the board too. I keep it in a place where I can see it on a regular basis. It helps me stay motivated and focused on my goal. And you know what? When I look at my board after a few months or a year, I have always achieved what I wanted. I have been doing it for a few years, but still every time I look back at my boards I’m surprised (positively!) that I’ve done it all.
Last January I showed my husband my 2014 visualisation board. It contained: chartering a yacht and sailing the Caribbean; finding, buying, renovating a big house plus building an extension; organising a wedding and getting married in a remotely located palace in Poland with lots of guests coming from both Poland and the UK, a road trip across Italy, growing my company, achieving over 40% year-on-year growth and establishing Bridgewater Group. He looked at me and I saw in his eyes that he was thinking: ‘I’m about to marry a mad woman!’ Well, mad or not, I achieved everything I wanted in 2014 and I had a huge smile on my face looking back at my board just before Christmas.
I believe that positive thoughts attract positive events. Whenever I have negative thoughts or start doubting things, I force myself to push these thoughts away. Maybe that’s the reason why I don’t watch the news too often as everything seems to be ‘doom and gloom’ on there. I have lots of positive energy and love surrounding myself with ‘positive thinkers’. I always tell people who work for me: ‘Just think positively and the things you want to happen will happen’. It’s also well known that successful people, entrepreneurs have a positive attitude towards life, are full of self-belief and have lots of positive energy and optimism that help them bring others on board.
I know that many of you will disagree with me, but why not give ‘positive thinking’ a go and see how it will impact your life. It has definitely impacted mine!
Agnes Butterworth
CEO of Bridgewater Resources UK
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