“Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.” Winston Churchill.

It’s not always easy for us to stay positive. From time to time, we all have challenges to face, unexpected problems to deal with or obstacles to overcome. When I come up against such barriers and adversity, I remind myself “that this too will pass.”

I also think about what my mum always used to say to me when I was a child, when things didn’t go my way and I had a setback. She used to say “remember there is always somebody worse off than you and things will get better, stay positive.”

When I sat down to write this piece, I thought about Thomas Edison who was named as Life Magazines Number One Man of the Last Millennium.

Edison patented an astounding 1,093 inventions in his lifetime. He attempted thousands of times to find the right material for his version of the incandescent light bulb; he didn’t see any of the attempts as failures. With every single attempt he just saw it as getting one step closer to a solution.  He never doubted he would succeed.

“Genius”, he declared “is 99% perspiration and 1% inspiration” but there was a third factor to his success – his positive attitude.

Edison was an optimist who saw the best in everything. He once said; “If we did all the things, we were capable of doing we would literally astound ourselves.”

His belief could be summarised by his statement, “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realise how close they were to success when they gave up.”

I was told a story many years ago that is probably the most notable display of Edison’s positive attitude. It illustrates how he approached a tragedy that occurred in his late sixties, when the laboratory he had built, a fourteen-building complex, with was greater in size than three football pitches, caught fire.

Now he loved this place. It was the base of his operations, it was where he and his staff conceived inventions, developed prototypes, manufactured products and shipped them to customers. It had become a model for modern research and manufacturing. He spent every minute he could there. He often slept there on one of the lab tables.

But on that day in December, when it caught fire, he was reported as saying as he stood outside and watched it burn, “Quick kids go and get your mother, she’ll never see another fire like this one”.

Most people would have been crushed, but not Edison, he said, “I’m 67, but not too old to make a fresh start.  I’ve been through a lot of things like this.” He rebuilt the laboratory and he kept working for another 17 years.

This week, why not take a few moments to pause and reflect. Consider how even a small moment of positivity can positively influence your life or someone else’s.

To arrange a free no obligation consultation, please contact Stephen Pauley via the contact form or by e mail: Stephen@befirstclass.co.uk