Pollyanna

“Be glad of life because it gives you the chance to love, to work, to play, and to look up at the stars” - Henry Van Dyke

This week has been a veritable success for me as something was said to me that I have longed to hear, not consciously but my hidden self that had been fighting to get out needed to hear that validation.

A colleague said to me “I hate your type of people, your always so bloody positive”

Wow, I thanked him for his feedback and apologised for ruining his mood, naturally the comment was not meant to be malicious, just made out of frustration on his part.

This did make me ponder for a few moments and it was concrete evidence of how far I had come.

Several months ago, I would have talked jive with him, validated his conspiracy and generally after the conversation not feel that great at all.

Now inside my mind flashed, like an arc light searching for a hidden piece of knowledge or metaphor that could help me out chatter my potential next negative thought and it dropped into my head, POLLYANNA!

Now Pollyanna, for all you guys who are not familiar with American children’s literature from the pre World War 1, was a book written by Eleanor H Porter. The book was about a little girl (Pollyanna) who could only see the positive side to every situation and called this the “Glad Game”

The premise of the book was that she was sent to live with a wicked Auntie but was so positive she affected everyone around her. One day she had an accident and lost the use of her legs but all the people who she had touched returned the “Glad game” and Pollyanna was happy again.

The whole idea of the “Glad game” is to find something positive in every situation and to be gleefully excited about every challenge that came our way.

What if we all live our life this way?

I can hear the cynics at the back (I am putting on a deep monotone voice to condescend you know)

“You cannot be happy all the time”

“Life is not like that”

“You have no idea what I have been through”

“Are Ewok’s, midget wookie’s?”

“This is unrealistic”

So what would be the outcome if all of Mankind played the “Glad Game”?

1. No world wars?
2. No famine?
3. No conflict?
4. No Jeremy Kyle?
5. No Chat Magazine, Top text tips?

Of course this is unrealistic as one characteristic that separates human beings is there individual ability to be altruistic in nature; however this can only be measured by extreme egotism.

You see for the universe to maintain its equilibrium you need to maintain the status quo of good & evil, positive & negative, night & day and light & dark. This is a sobering thought but the “glad game still holds it relevance.

So let’s get back to the “glad Game” for everyone who sees the best in everything you have someone who sees the “worst in everything”. I am not saying that this is even purposeful as a reaction. The Antonym to “Glad” is of course “Sorry” so what if we played the sorry game”
It would sound like this;


“SORRY DON’T likes it really”
“SORRY BUT what about this ……”
“SORRY HOW can we do that….”
“SORRY MAYBE, don’t know”

Now for the “Glad game”

“I am so GLAD you showed me and I really like it”
“I am so GLAD and grateful you told me, and it sound a great idea”
“I am so GLAD we have an opportunity to figure that out together”
“I am so GLAD you asked me that, I will work so hard to find you an answer”

We are all unique individuals and we all have great ideas, dreams and burning ambition within us all. How often have you met someone who you shared your idea that was either playing the “Glad Game” or the “Sorry Game”?

I think if we are all honest with each other we don’t all have a cheering squad all spelling out “GLAD” with Pom Pom’s all of the time, this of course is the whole point of my blog today.

This is because the “Glad Game” cannot be played alone and we all need someone to play it with, a society or fellowship who will cheer your every move unconditionally. This is what we all search for with every relationship, every job, with every colleague, every friend and family member.

This week one book that I had avoided for quite a while but is a must for everyone who wants to self develop was “Feel the fear, and do it anyway” – Susan Jeffers. I can also see the irony of the situation however the blog today has been inspired by the book.

One part in particular was about a guy who used to be criminal, Gangster and drug addict and was one day shot in the gut and was paralysed from the waist down.

He was disabled by the bullet and during his recovery no doubt was playing the “Sorry Game” and lashed out to the world, he did through positive thinking and the realisation that he was responsible for his own happiness changed and started to leave a positive life.

The crux of the story which was one of my inspirations for the blog was a scenario that was described when he was helping out as a volunteer and looking after all the kids. The kids were of course attracted to him because of his personality and they all felt comfortable enough for him to facilitate lots of questions.

One of the questions he asked to the kids was, “what they thought a handicapped person wanted most”?

Without hesitation one of the children shouted out “Friends”, he answered “that’s right” then all the children spontaneously jumped up and all hugged him all saying “I will be your friend”

That did get me and choked a bit when reading that part of the book as we can all relate to that and the endearing nature of the children who all were playing “The Glad Game” but did it subconsciously.

This did get me thinking and an old idea popped back into my head, something that I had thought about at the beginning of my journey and was originally put down as a frustration thought. (I should trust my instincts) The idea was that I wish that I had a friend who thought in exactly the same way as me and wish that there was a network of support that could help.

The idea was a website that you could advertise oneself and looking for someone similar that you could mutually be each others cheering squad, someone who you could text, call, e-mail, instant message or meet with and discuss your ideas and like-for–like thoughts.

Now to develop you have to be altruistic, but you got to want to do it. I am taking action and have developed a Facebook group called the “Glad Friends Exchange”
Click to join.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=79946562541&ref=mf


The mission statement for the group is to provide a meeting place for people to selflessly advertise themselves to join a circle of “Glad” you can add the person as a friend and then help each other through as each others cheering squad.

Now for those who know me, I do love an acronym and to focus on the purpose of the “Glad Friends Exchange” an acronym is as follows;
G – Giving
L – Love (unconditional)
A – Abounding
D- Direction

The opening of blog was me seeing “Glad” in a negative experience and we all have to look at everything in our life as an opportunity.

I am so glad of every bad thing that happened in my life, as then I did not know how to be happy and learn through it, but do now. J

“When you look for the bad in mankind expecting to find it, you surely will” - Abraham Lincoln, Inscription on Pollyanna's locket, a gift from her father

If you did like the above please leave a comment, I am so happy you are reading this.