Remember to be an Optimist. Think like an Optimist. Talk like an Optimist and Act like an Optimist.

An optimist knows that regardless of the pending bad news, regardless of how things appear, GOOD NEWS is within the next few steps and the news will continue to be good and get even better.

An optimist knows promotion in some way shape or form is inevitable for them. None the less, even before they get that promotion, or achieve what they desire, an optimist has and exudes happiness and joy. So much so, that everyone around them is also touched and positively affected and infected by their joy.

An optimist is always receptive and ready because they have not allowed discouragement and or temporary defeat to blind them to the opportunities knocking at their door.

As a result of being an Optimistic Thinker the Optimist does not dream smaller dreams in order to keep from being discouraged. An optimist dreams BIG DREAMS and continues to do so in order to grow into that which they were meant to be. By dreaming big dreams and not letting them go, the optimist becomes a magnet for any and all incredible opportunities heading their way.

This happens due to the following principle: “As a man/woman thinks in their heart, so are they.” What you think about most, what is predominant in your heart, is what you will attract. Luke 6:45 says, “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart, brings forth that which is good…” An optimist predominantly thinks about the good and only about the good. An optimist doesn’t allow bad, poor, negative thoughts to remain or continue but forces himself to think positively with hopefulness and confidence.

An Optimist realizes it is more important to get close to God and trust that which is within before trusting anything or anyone else. The Optimist knows that God, without man, is still God however, a man without God is nothing for he is not utilizing the power of the creator within.

The Optimist knows he/she is never alone. This gives the Optimist the inner encouragement to get excited or enthused about life again; (the word “enthused” derives from the Greek parts “en-” (inside) and a variation of “theo” (god). It literally means one who is infused with, or possessed by, the spirit of God; The Optimist knows greater things are ahead and that having an attitude of gratitude will help those plans come to pass in a larger capacity than they could have ever believed.

As Nido R Qubein said, “Choose to have a positive outlook on life. You will notice a measurable difference in your mood and overall happiness!”

The Optimist can and does feel anxiety. The Optimist can and does feel anguish, confusion, and pain. The difference between the pessimist and the optimist is the pessimist allows these emotions to paralyze and defeat them. They further allow these emotions to cause their focus to be on themselves and all of the negative rather than focusing on God and all the good and positive with which they are already blessed. The pessimist focuses on the losses and winds up weeping. The weeping lasts all night as they never think about how God promised that JOY would certainly come in the morning. If the pessimist thought of the coming joy, this might change their perspective but their focus is on that which causes the weeping. Their focus is on the negative.

In contrast, the Optimist allows these same emotions to motivate them toward bigger and better things of positivity and success, which in turn will bless others as well as themselves. The Optimist believes they have divine favor. The Optimist knows weeping “MAY” endure for a night but JOY definitely will come in the morning. Notice weeping may endure. It doesn’t say it will endure for the entire night, it says it may. Whether it does or not, joy “WILL” come in the morning. The promise isn’t about the weeping. The promise is about the JOY THAT IS COMING. The Optimist focuses on the coming JOY, which will offset and replace the weeping.

Because of this the Optimist is convinced everything will soon be good. They trust it; they believe it and they speak it. This winds up affirming their beliefs and causing it to come to pass.

The Optimist knows the struggles and battles belong to God. When they are to God, they will be turned into amazing victories.

The Optimist is not a borrower but a lender; the Optimist is not the tail but the head. This is because they are not run by the circumstances, they are above the circumstances.

The Optimist is a testimony of being the greatest comeback. The Optimist knows those that speak against them and their destiny, will be silenced.

The Optimist CANNOT LOSE!

As an Optimist, you believe your story is only going to get better and better. You always have an expectation of something good happening for and to you. An optimist doesn’t just sit around and HOPE all will work to their good, the optimist studies to become better at planting into good soil in order that a good crop will be the result. An optimist doesn’t go to the mailbox hoping that someone will have sent them a check or some distant unknown relative left them money, they remain busy working at making things happen. They don’t believe in magic, they believe in sowing and reaping AND every so often being the recipient of a HUGE harvest, larger than the one they planted. This is the optimist.

Though the tunnel is long and dark, an optimist sees, or believes they see, light at the end of the tunnel and they stay at it until the bright light shines on them and brings them to their reward. They know the real light they seek and can use is actually within them and therefore, as long as they have and maintain hope, all will work to their good.

An optimist knows that Life is Short and it needs to be lived to the full each and every day. In doing so, the optimist is able to display an aura larger than they are that will positively affect all around them.

An optimist knows Faith is like a muscle and needs to be worked. The more you work it the stronger it gets. The more you work it and believe it the more you will know all will work to your good. Your optimism will grow as your faith grows. You will find both to become stronger as you continue to believe all works to your good. Your faith, the magnet within, is attracting the good and positive things into your life. It isn’t that bad can’t or will not happen, it is that bad will not continue and thus it will not win. Eventually, the bad will be overcome by the good meaning, the good will win. This will happen because you have exercised your optimistic faith muscle. As a result, you can and will become Mr. or Ms. Universe in the realm of faith.

You will come to believe, regardless how things may seem or appear right now, IT WILL ALWAYS WORK OUT FOR ME! Learning to think this way will have you become a positive magnet. An energy shift will happen so that things will begin to work to your favor.

An Optimist is aware of how necessary it is for change to be a part of their life. Although change is scary, it for our best. This change will help them to get where they need to go in order to become what it is they need to become. It will also help them receive all that is coming to them because they did not give up and continued to believe all would be well.

During times of change, it often appears success is not possible and as a result often failure is expected. While going thru change, there will be those saying you will never make it. You don’t deserve it. The Optimist does not buy into any of this type of thinking or believing. The Optimist knows that promotion and blessings are inevitable. The Optimist is remains steadfast in believing all will be well and all will work to their good.

The Optimist sees the past several years as follows:

• 2020 changed me
• 2021 broke me
• 2022 opened my eyes
• 2023 I am coming back

An optimist never gives up on something they really want. Even though it is difficult to wait, it is more difficult having regret for giving up just short of reaching your goal. So, don’t give up on your dreams, for in those dreams you will find your life’s purpose.

The reason many give up is due to the obstacles, struggles, and problems they encounter. They forget that God is sovereign, meaning He is in everything AND can fit everything into a pattern for good, so that all turns out well. But, only when we learn to trust Him and not quit. It is only when we let Him continue to work things to our advantage. For as He is working things out He is working on us as well. All things work to our good when we learn to make friends with the problems and struggles of life. Nothing is random for God is All and in All. If your dream isn’t working out to what you thought, it is best to remember perhaps God has something better for you.

Since God is sovereign, because He is all in all, he has planned for us hundreds of years ahead of time. He did this with Abraham when He told Abraham his descendants would be strangers in a country and enslaved and mistreated for 400 years BUT would come out strong and wealthy. All of that happened because God had Joseph sold by his brothers into slavery and taken to Egypt. When Zacchaeus, a man of very short stature, heard Jesus was coming thru town he climbed into a sycamore tree so he would be able to see Jesus. Think about it, God had that tree planted there many, many years previous so that it would be large enough for Zacchaeus to climb and not only be able to see, but be seen. These trees live for thousands of years. God has it all in control and an Optimist rests in the fact God is in control. He doesn’t worry and attract the negative.

The best way to befriend a problem is to thank God for them and open yourself to the possibility of the benefits God has for you that will come to you through these difficult times. More often than not God does not remove or lessen the struggles, but His wisdom is sufficient to bring good TO YOU out of everyone of them.

An Optimist is convinced he/she will be telling a different story than how it may appear. The Optimist knows their story is a story of miracles. Their story is one filled with hope and full of inspiration. Those who have been watching from close and far will find it hard to believe how much has been overcome bringing you out on top.

The Optimist is convinced the days of lack and defeat are short-lived and will not be their future. The Optimist knows the pain of the ridicule and oppression they have endured will be overcome as the tide turns in their favor and blessings begin flowing to and toward them. The Optimist knows that opportunity is behind the door that is opening as they step over the threshold into a newness of life. The Optimist knows they are headed to a season of abundance.

This happens because the Optimist is convinced their dreams are on their way AND THEY BELIEVE IT. Thus, they move forward full of faith that all will work to their good.

The Optimist knows the thoughts they think and the feelings they emit, dictate what they will attract.

So, what are you thinking? As a result, what will you attract?

As an optimist you will believe your life will always get better. There are always blessings coming your way. Your best days are ahead of you.

In my twenties and early thirties I began to read books that would encourage and inspire me. When a book touched my life and brought excitement into my heart I would purchase several and give them to friends. In one such case I gave them to those working with me in Tucson. I had read Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill and The Richest Man in Babylon by George Samuel Clason. These books lit a fire in me. What was interesting were the comments from some of those to whom I gave the books. One in particular after The Richest Man in Babylon, said to me in front of the others: “Do you really believe all is going to work out for you? Do you think all will be well just because you have decided to talk and think positively? Don’t you think there will be problems and obstacles with which you will have to deal? When you have those problems and obstacles, what will you think then?”

My response to him and the others was, “My daily attitude is a choice I can make each and every day. I can expect the best each and every day and by doing so this will provide hope and keep me encouraged. If I do not remain positive, the result will be that I follow a negative thought process, which will lead to talking negatively and this will lead to me attracting the opposite of what I desired. That said sir, I choose to be optimistic.”

It is time to get excited about life again, like when you were a child about to hook up with a good friend or a group of friends and talk about all that was going on. Like when you received your first bicycle, car, cell phone, iPad, or whatever it was that brought excitement into your heart. Like your first trip to the fair, or Disneyland.

It is time to let go of stress and trust that God has it all in control. That He is bringing you unexpected blessings to rock your world.

Be ready…

A true optimist becomes a magnet for that which they desire. When you become a magnet you attract that which you want or desire. A pessimist also becomes a magnet but attracts the negative while an optimist attracts the positive. What are you attracting? Are you attracting heartache, failure, defeat, lack of drive and ambition, ill health, short of money each and every week, no friends, or feeling alone? Switch over to being an optimist. Life will change for you.

Surround yourself with positive influences. Do not allow the negative thoughts or feelings to take residence in your heart or head. On a daily basis make it a habit to read, listen to, and confess something positive and inspiring for yourself and your life. Associate with positive family, friends, and people. Make it a habit to be around those who feel good about themselves are not the type to talk about or tear others down.

When you are an optimist you are happy with your own success as well as that of those around you. When you are an optimist you smile even when things are not going your way for you know that a smile will change your attitude and altitude in life. A smile will change you as well as cause others to smile back at you. An optimist speaks confidently, for like the smile, confidence can and is infectious.

The issue is, we attract what we think about most often. We are a magnet of one type or another by either attracting the negative or the positive. We attract what we believe. When fearful we attract the negative. When in a spirit of love and faith, we know, regardless of how it looks, all will work to our good.

By being an optimist you can become a magnet for:

• Health
• Wealth
• Love
• Friends
• Joy
• Happiness
• Fulfillment

All of these can be manifest in you because, as an optimist, you believe all will work to your good.

An optimist knows EVERYTHING BEGINS FROM WITHIN. This is very important. Your life is a reflection of what is on the inside.

We are made in God’s image and thus His life is in us. We must allow that to work to the outside of us. We were created by and from love and designed to flourish. We are to emit love knowing it will be returned. We are to act from love knowing it will guide us to the next right step. As we walk in love we are to release all fears for we are worthy as love lives in us and surrounds us. Love will help us attract what we need and desire.

What if we are not able to do this? What if we don’t believe we are worthy or have what it takes? What if we have been verbally beaten down causing us to have a poor self-image? What if we have been physically abused and mistreated? What if our health has been compromised and we are so low we seemingly have no hope? How can we gain that inward enthusiasm and exuberance for life like we had as a child? How do we be an OPTIMIST when we are so distraught, demeaned and have a poor self-image?

Perhaps the song by Lauren Daigle will help us get back that which God has placed in us. I had been asked by my wife to listen to the song which I did and I was moved by the melody and the emotion in her voice. It wasn’t until my brother asked me to play it loudly on my desk top computer AND READ the lyrics while she sang. This gave me goose bumps. It opened up the song and allowed me to hear it as if it was written JUST FOR ME!

Below please find some of the key words in this song. I pray they speak to you the way they did to me:

I keep fighting voices in my mind telling me I am not enough
Every single lie that tells me I will never measure up
Am I more than just the sum of every high and low
Remind me once again just who I am because I need to know

You say I am loved when I can’t feel a thing
You say I am strong when I think I am weak
And You say I am held when I am falling short
And when I don’t belong, oh You say I am Yours

And I believe, Oh I believe, What You say of me, I believe
The only thing that matters now is everything You think of me
In You I find my worth, in You I find my identity

…Taking all I have, and now I’m laying it at Your feet
You have every failure, God, You have very victory…

…And I believe, Oh I believe, What You say of me, I believe what You say of me…

An optimist believes all things will work to their good…eventually, when optimists take a stand, things will work out to their good. There is a saying, “God will always end in all is well. If all is not well, then it isn’t the end.” Stay in faith and take on the optimistic stance knowing all will be well.

Believe the accounts will be balanced and settled. Believe your dreams, regardless of how big, can and will come to pass. Believe God will not fail you. Believe it is your time to celebrate. There is a shift coming and it is going to be in your favor. Believe that NOBODY can stop what God is doing in your life.

King David was greatly distressed when his followers were talking about stoning him after they returned to find their homes had been burned and their families and belongings taken. What did he do? Did he sulk? Did he say, “Well I knew this would happen? Did he think, “I should have known it would crash down around me eventually!” Did he fell like hanging it up and quitting? The thought may have occurred to him but NO, he did not! He encouraged himself in the Lord. He got alone and talked himself back into a place of knowing all would be well. He did pour out his heart to God. He did cry and ask for help. But when it was all said and done, he wound up being encouraged and upbeat. He wound up knowing all would be well. When he made the decision to be positive, to be optimistic, he allowed God to work on his behalf and things came into focus. HE DIDN’T SURRENDER TO THE HARD TIMES! HE MADE THEM SURRENDER TO HIM AND HIS RESOLVE!

We need to do the same in our own lives and make life pay us what we want.

The Optimist knows: “It’s the ones who are against you that believe in your power the most.” This is what the Optimist uses to encouragement and propel themselves forward and continue on the path of success and winning.

The Optimist comes to learn and believe in themselves the way those attacking them believe: that they have more power than those attacking them and that they have more going for them than those attacking them. Those attacking fear the Optimist so they hope to stop them before they succeed.

The Optimist knows anything they can’t control, they need to let go. We can’t and are not to control others and their thoughts or talk about us. Let it go. We can’t control what is happening in the outside world at large. Let it go. Don’t fear it. Don’t resist it. Don’t run from it. Invite it in and then let it go. It has no power over you other than what you give it.

An optimist believes doors will open that have previously been closed and locked. An optimist believes that miracles still happen. An optimist believes that devastation will be followed by restoration. An optimist, regardless of age, believes their greatest days of productivity and prosperity are on the horizon. Just think of Clint Eastwood, still making movies in his nineties…still going and still believing. Age is a number and your past is past. Keep the faith and move ahead believing all will work to your good.

Best of LUCK as you
Labor Under Correct Knowledge…

Respectfully,

Rick Cox