"The sun shines and warms and lights us and we have no curiosity to know why this is so; but we ask the reason of all evil, of pain, and hunger and mosquitoes and silly people."

Several years ago, I was introduced to a wonderful new way to look at life.  As all of us start the New Year I thought it would be helpful to revisit this perspective.

Kurt and Patricia Wright wrote the book, "Breaking the Rules".  In this book after much research on visionary leaders they found the questions below were always on a visionary's mind.

"What do I know is already RIGHT?"

"What is it that makes it RIGHT?"

"What would be ideally RIGHT?"

"What's not yet quite RIGHT?"

"What resources can I find to make it RIGHT?"

When tackling our challenges whether at home or work using these questions will keep you in a positive up spiral, not a negative down spiral.  Looking for what is right or what is working will change the tone of any situation.  We have become so programmed to look for and talk about what is wrong that it keeps us in a constant state of negativity.

My challenge for each one of you is to think of a situation that you may be struggling with and try applying these questions.  I guarantee your spirits will rise and your energy will be focused on looking for answers and not staying stuck in the negative.

How can thinking about the negative serve you?  Does it solve anything?  Do you feel any better after complaining about things?  Staying in a negative frame of mind does nothing more than keep you there or takes you even further down.

I was having a discussion with my client about her dating life.  She felt stuck and frustrated with the people she was meeting.  Rather than ask her why she was frustrated, which would have kept her in a negative frame of mind, I asked what was working for her.  We then identified the many lessons that she was learning from the dating process. This question lead to the realization of all the things she was learning about herself, how she was standing up for all she believed in for the first time in her life.  That was huge progress!

We were then able to apply the same thought process to growing her business.  Showing up being able to be exactly who she is, not worrying about whether people will like her.  Standing tall in the knowing of her own joy for what she does makes it perfectly right for her!  She can now be herself and attract the clients that are looking for what she has to offer instead of trying to be what is not authentically her.

When working in a team environment it is easy for the "Negative Nellie's" to take over and draw the whole team to their knees in bitching and misery.  We have all certainly had that experience, it is a huge waste of time and energy.  Are you willing to be the leader by asking what is going right or what's working? I challenge all of you to give it a try.