This positivity thing is sometimes killing people in their own denial loop.

Look, shit happens, to John and Mike.

John stays positive: “It’s ok, everything will be alright.”, and he decides to do nothing and be patient until things “improve” by themselves. He ends up drowning in his shit.

Mike is more negative: “Damn, smells like shit to me, WTF is wrong in my life? Let’s do something about it.”, and he decides to solve the shit until it smells good again.

Who will thrive?

The problem with positivity is that people use it as an excuse to do nothing, and “hope for the best”, because some gurus kept saying for the past decades that we must trust the universe and stay positive.

Seeing thing with a positive eye is essential.

But it’s also essential to recognize when shit happens, and to take action to solve it.

Being “positive” shouldn’t prevent us from being realistic and pragmatic.

It’s important to get the “positive” lessons out of what happens to us.

It’s even more important to tackle the situation and solve it first thing in order to survive it..

When I lost everything the first time I arrived in Bali, 2,5 years ago, I didn’t go from homeless to building businesses because I hoped for the best.

I locked myself in the room a generous family gave me for a month, and kicked myself in the butt to solve my financial situation first.

Of course, I stayed “positive” sometimes and enjoyed the simplest things (coffee, eating street food, sunrises..)

But at the same time, what made me bounce back, become a foreign investor, get my residency status and buying my first lands after 2,5 years,

was to first identify challenges as what they really were:

Things that needed to be tackled and solved.

Passive positivity doesn’t solve anything.
Hoping for the best while sitting on the beach doesn’t solve anything.

It’s only useful if you use it to fuel your heart while actively putting your own shit together.

And if being negative for a while is what it takes you to take action and get things done until the situation is better,

then accept shit for what it is, be negative if you feel like it, but stay realistic and practical, and focus on what actually matters: surviving what’s happening.

Positivity, negativity, those can’t exist without each other. Sometimes you feel positive, sometimes negative. It’s a balance.

The point is that it’s not what you should focus on, to live a life you choose.

Too much passive positivity leads to denial, then delusion, then depression,

Being realistic and practical is what leads progress and action.

Don’t be positive to escape your reality.