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Silver lining thinking is very simple really. It’s taking a look at any dark situation and finding out what the positives arePositive Thinking versus PHositive Focusingere’s a thought that may be hard for a lot of go-getters to swallow.Positive thinking does not help you achieve your goals. Positive focusing does. You can think positively about events and circumstances and all it will do is make you feel happier, make you feel better about your situation and about the situations of the people you are thinking about. When you focus positively, you focus on what there is to appreciate and use in your quest for a particular goal. You have to realize what psychologists have known all along, that without being a positive thinker and just by focusing positively, you will definitely achieve your goals.What are the differences between positive focusing and positive thinking? Positive thinking is when you think good things about an event or circumstance and think about how it is positive emotionally for you. You reflect on how it is positive in terms of everything else around you, how it relates to this, that and the other thing, and what possible abstract benefits may be derived from it. In positive focusing, you take only what you already have that is relatively positive and useful and focus on your gifts, talents and abilities – focusing on what you’ve already been given in terms of the attitudes, aptitudes and attributes you possess or the little triumphs you have had along the way as you head towards a particular goal.If you focus positively you are using conscious effort in a directed fashion for a specific goal, whilst thinking positively in a habitual pattern of thought. Both can be developed. It is called “silver lining thinking” or “positive mental attitude”. Silver lining thinking is very simple really. It’s taking a look at any dark situation and finding out what the positives are. When you figure out, for instance after failing an exam, what the positives are in having failed, say that your weaknesses lie in a particular area of study; that’s called silver lining thinking. The positives may also be that it gives you an opportunity to study again to gain more competence. In the next test, it allows you to see where you fell short in your study skills or thinking ability. You may need to study in a different way. It is a learning experience and finding the “learning” in any failure is called silver lining thinking. Seeing the positives in everything that happens around you will create a positive mental attitude. Whatever happens in life happens as a result of your particular actions or reactions or thoughts about a particular event, person or circumstance.Jonathan Robinson wrote a poem a long time ago based on an ancient Sufi story about how often we’re too quick to judge what various events may mean in our lives. It is called The Old ManElite+ 27