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

We have just endured two years of the Covid pandemic and seen significant disruption to our daily lives. Sometimes the news stories have been sad and challenging to watch.

Understandably news bulletins and newspaper stories are dominated by the awful events unfolding in Ukraine following the Russian invasion and constant shelling of Ukrainian cities. The images of people fleeing for their lives and the devastation created by Russian aggression is hard to watch sometimes. It leaves you feeling helpless, sad and can create a negative impact on your mood and energy levels.

It is understandable that there is much fear, anxiety and uncertainty around presently. When we face adversity of this nature and we feel anxious and stressed I feel that it’s important we constantly remind ourselves “that this too will pass.”

When I sat down to write this piece, I thought about positivity and the very constructive effect it can have on our mood and mental well-being. I’m going to share the story of Thomas Edison with you this week and how he coped with some adversity that affected him.

Thomas Edison was named as Life Magazines Number One Man of the Last Millennium. They commented that he was a person who brought more value to the human race than any other, literally giving us our modern world and standards of living. It’s claimed that his four great inventions were recorded sound, motion pictures, the electric light bulb and utility industry, and corporate R&D labs.

He 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. This was his positive attitude.

Edison was an optimist who saw the best in everything.  He once said; “If we did all the things, we are 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.”

Probably the most notable display of Edison’s positive attitude can be seen in the way he approached a tragedy that occurred in his late sixties.  The lab he had built, a fourteen-building complex, which 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 lab, and he kept working for another 17 years.

This week, why not pause for a few moments and consider how you can make a difference to your and/or someone else’s life with some positivity.

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