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• "People become really quite remarkable when they start thinking that they can do things. When they believe in themselves they have the first secret of success." - Norman Vincent Peale

• "When one door of happiness closes, another opens, but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one that has been opened for us."- Helen Keller. Focusing on the positive is like looking for that opened door that is not as easy to see.

• "Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight." - Benjamin Franklin

• "Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt." - William Shakespeare. Focus on the positive, battle those doubts and win!

• "Better to light one small candle than to curse the darkness." - Chinese Proverb. It may be more difficult and take more energy to focus on the positive (light the candle) than dwell in negativity (curse the darkness), but once you do, it allows you to see everything around you in a different light.

Stories:

• I found this story online and it's exactly what Focus Eleven believes in and wants to help everyone else do the same:
  
  "Attitude Is Everything".........By Francie Baltazar-Schwartz
  
  Jerry was the kind of guy you love to hate. He was always in a good mood and always had something positive to say. When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would reply, "If I were any better, I would be twins!"
  
  He was a unique manager because he had several waiters who had followed Him around from restaurant to restaurant. The reason the waiters followed Jerry Was because of his attitude. He was a natural motivator. If an employee was having a bad day, Jerry was there telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation. Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up to Jerry and asked him, "I don't get it! You can't be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?" Jerry replied, "Each morning I wake up and say to myself, Jerry, you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood or you can choose to be in a bad mood.' I choose to be in a good mood. Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or I can choose to learn from it. I choose to learn from it. Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or I can point out the positive side of life. I choose the positive side of life." "Yeah, right, it's not that easy," I protested. "Yes it is," Jerry said.
  
  Life is all about choices. When you cut away all the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations. You choose how people will affect your mood. You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood. The bottom line: It's your choice how you live life." I reflected on what Jerry said. Soon thereafter, I left the restaurant industry to start my own business. We lost touch, but often thought about him when I made a choice about life instead of reacting to it. 
  
  Several years later, I heard that Jerry did something you are never supposed to do in a restaurant business: he left the back door open one morning and was held up at gunpoint by three armed robbers. While trying to open the safe, his hand, shaking from nervousness, slipped off the combination. The robbers panicked and shot him. Luckily, Jerry was found relatively quickly and rushed to the local trauma center. After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, Jerry was released from the hospital with fragments of the bullets still in his body. I saw Jerry about six months after the accident. When I asked him how he was, he replied, "If I were any better, I'd be twins. Wanna see my scars?"
  
  I declined to see his wounds, but did ask him what had gone through his mind as the robbery took place. "The first thing that went through my mind was that I should have locked the back door," Jerry replied. "Then, as I lay on the floor, I remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live, or I could choose to die. I chose to live. "Weren't you scared? Did you lose consciousness?" I asked. Jerry continued, "The paramedics were great. They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the emergency room and I saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really scared. In their eyes, I read, 'He's a dead man. "
  
  I knew I needed to take action." "What did you do?" I asked. "Well, there was a big, burly nurse shouting questions at me," said Jerry. "She asked if I was allergic to anything. 'Yes,' I replied. The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply. I took a deep breath and yelled, 'Bullets!'
  
  Over their laughter, I told them, 'I am choosing to live. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead." Jerry lived thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude. I learned from him that every day we have the choice to live fully. Attitude, after all, is everything.




• Here is a good story and the boy in the story sounds like the ultimate positive thinker - it would be great if we all felt a little more like he did in our daily lives. >>>+<<<
  
  Lessons Learned by Author Unknown
  
  One day, the father of a very wealthy family took his son on a trip to the country with the express purpose of showing him how poor people live.
  
  They spent a couple of days and nights on the farm of what would be considered a very poor family.
  
  On their return from their trip, the father asked his son, “How was the trip?”
  
  “It was great, Dad.”
  
  “Did you see how poor people live?” the father asked.
  
  “Oh yeah,” said the son.
  
  “So, tell me, what did you learn from the trip?” asked the father.
  
  The son answered: “I saw that we have one dog and they had four. We have a pool that reaches to the middle of our garden and they have a creek that has no end. We have imported lanterns in our garden and they have the stars at night. Our patio reaches to the front yard and they have the whole horizon.
  
  “We have a small piece of land to live on and they have fields that go beyond our sight.
  
  “We have servants who serve us, but they serve others. We buy our food, but they grow theirs.
  
  “We have walls around our property to protect us, they have friends to protect them.”
  
  The boy’s father was speechless.
  
  Then his son added, “Thanks Dad for showing me how poor we are.”