Recently I have found the news more and more depressing what with Covid numbers, natural disasters, and the withdrawal from Afghanistan.

The constant tragic pictures of climate change, children injured, animals hurt and people dying. I wonder just how much we can all take of this continuous bad news. A world bereft of hope is a hopeless world and a hopeless world is one with a very short future. Because where there is hope there is life.

I have always been attracted to positive people as we all are. Just think and imagine if you had the opportunity to take a friend somewhere as a treat. You had a friend who was always positive and upbeat. A genuine glass half full person who always saw the best in a situation or person. And a friend who was always miserable, always complaining about their ailments and the amount of sleep they had missed out on. Someone who always saw the worst thing happening. Which one would you take on the treat?

Positivity is a real bonus in life and positive leaders are genuinely better leaders, positive people are less stressed by things, they are more resilient and often enjoy better health. Positive people will take on more and be very effective within a team and generally they achieve more in life. The trick is maintaining positivity and that is all about maintaining perspective.

Now another story if I may: You, whoever you are, and I go out for a day together walking the banks of the River Otter. We have lovely weather, great conversation and a lot of laughs. We bring with us a marvellous picnic with champagne, cheese, pies, salad, fruit and whatever else you fancy. We complete our jaunt and return to our vehicle. There sitting on the front seat all curled up and dry are the sandwiches. You point and laugh and call me a fool and some other expletives for forgetting the sandwiches. The picnic will be forever remembered as the one that I forgot the sandwiches. The fact that the weather was wonderful, food a plenty and the drink amazing. Never mind the company, the conversation and the exercise. All will be forgotten in the shining light of the sandwiches. I often use the line “Am I focusing too much on the sandwiches” in my self-talk, We are all negatively wired and we all focus on the negatives and not the positives. Maintaining perspective is keeping the negatives in balance and not letting them take over.

If you can do that you will take the lessons of the past and use them boldly in the future. Recently my husband coached an individual who lived a hopeless life. He had been successful in his life but he had two failed marriages and a term in prison which had destroyed his optimism and hence his future. He has spent his whole life looking backwards and wishing he could change things. When hankering after the past he is bereft of hope because you cannot change what has happened, you can only change the future, constantly looking backwards and possessing a negative mindset will ensure you live a life that sees little hope or positivity for the future. It's only when you realise this and maintain a positive perspective and balance between the positives and the negatives that you can live rather than just existing.

This is a conscious decision and one that many of us have to work hard at to maintain our positive disposition. We need more positivity in our lives, we have had a constant stream of bad news over the last two years but we need to look for the positives, practise gratitude and from that we can see and vision a bright future that is full of hope and wonderful experiences to enjoy and cherish.