The most difficult choice in life is to persevere no matter what others think of us. To do this, we must embrace positivity and stay focused on our goals.
Take Your Son to Work
Growing up, I spent most of my time in Jamaica’s low-income communities, where there were low expectations for progress. At one point, my alarm clock was gunshots in the mornings, where I would wake up to the death of someone I knew from the streets. During holiday breaks, my dad would take me to work with him. There I met and interacted with people on all levels. I had no prejudice towards the people I interacted with and always sought to learn something from them. My dad would also take me to the homes of some progressive friends. These experiences helped in lifting my thoughts above the low expectations of others.
An Architect's Doubts
I recall my dad introducing me to an architect at one of his workplaces and asking him to teach me a few things from what he was doing. This architect mentioned that he tried it with someone like me before and, after many years, the person did not learn anything. He was not willing to waste his time again. A while after, I was introduced to technical drawing, a skill related to the architect’s work, in high school. My teacher placed me in a corner, away from the other students, because I was far ahead of the class. Instead of accepting the negative expectations the architect had of me, I choose to embrace positivity and excelled in that class.
A Shopkeeper's Disbelief
After finishing high school, my dad collected my external exam results and was very surprised at my above average-grades. One day, a well-known shopkeeper who lived in my community and was looked up to as a progressive and wealthy man asked me how I did in my exams. When I told him the results, he said that I was lying. There was no expectation for progress. Even some of the most impactful people in my life believed I should not have risen above the mentality of poverty surrounding me.
Rise Above the Poverty Mentality!
I’ve heard an infinite number of reasons for why I should have remained in the slum where I was born and raised. However, for every reason to stay, there were two or more reasons to escape. I chose to harvest the positive reasons why I should progress. Whatever life throws at us, we have the choice to allow what is positive into our thoughts.
Our thoughts are embedded into our subconsciousness and eventually become what we are, whether positive or negative. Not because others are struggling with their health and unable to break the chain of being overweight means that we will. We need to have a positive mindset that looks out for the possibilities and acts on them. Otherwise, our minds will see all that is negative and act on negativity to keep us down. We can have all we need to get to a healthy life but cannot do so because of a negative mindset.
Positivity is essential. We need it daily to keep us going, just like we need to eat each day to stay alive. Often, too much focus is placed on the physical, what we see, and not on the mental and spiritual, that are unseen. The fact is that a healthy life is, first and foremost, based on spirituality and the physical follows.
Read my post on the role of faith and spirituality next.
