Positivity By Choice – Not Chance

I should have died in 1994

My body fought off a flesh eating bug called streptococcus toxic shock syndrome and it lived up to it’s name. A low pulse; high blood pressure; vomiting and diarrhoea all became unwelcome guests. Despite the doctors having prepared my family for the worst, the best they could hope for was to amputate my leg. Thankfully, neither happened and all it took was for them to flush out the puss.

One anecdote that stands out is that before being wheeled into the operating theatre, my father told me to keep fighting. He swears I nodded in response. Maybe I did. Maybe that acceptance was my body’s reaction being positive that I will make it through. So maybe when you spend your life being as positive as you can, your body helps out when the fight is sucked out of you.

Both these legs have been the source of 7 years of rugby, bit of running and now cross-fit. Of course every near death battle is not complete without a wicked scar. Mine is an unattractive line that runs down the back of my left knee and across the side of my leg.

At the age of 23 I failed in a business and came close to bankruptcy. For the next 8 years I magnetized to every start-up I could relate to and now I try help others see past failure.

Life if great. No? I’m pretty sure that the people you try to emulate look at you and are jealous. We all want something more. We all have something somebody else wishes they had. We are all special. We are all unique.

Life throws a lot of curve-balls. I’ve seen a lot of home-runs being hit from those. Irony being that those home-runs always seems sweeter then the fast-ball that comes begging.

Being positive isn’t easy but being negative just isn’t fun.

Everyday I wake up and count the things I’m grateful for and just figure out that things can be worse but they aren’t. In fact they are pretty good. Even when things get pretty bad I always think back to the lowest point in my life and realised just how blessed I am.

Positivity starts by being positive for others. And as a throwback to a previous post, if all else fails, fake being positive until you have no choice but to be so.