The Hindu Business Line : High-octane fuel for your life-ride

What is positive energy? It is all about optimism, trust, enthusiasm, love, purpose, joy, passion, spirit to perform at a higher level, effort to overcome adversity in life and at work, willingness to share contagious energy with employees and customers, bringing out the best in others and oneself, and courage to triumph over negative situations that threaten to sabotage your health, family, team and success.

Thus explains Jon Gordon in The Energy Bus (www.landmarkonthenet.com) , a book that explains 10 rules for your life-ride through a business fable.

It is a Monday morning when you meet the protagonist, a distraught George who leaves his car, which is down with a flat tyre, and grudgingly takes a bus ride to work. The bus driver, Joy, finds him a `dimmer' - walking down the aisle with no kick in his step, `like a light had been turned off inside'.

Alas, we don't have to search for such people around us! "No purpose, no spirit. No energy. As if it had been sucked out of them by the daily grind of life... Too many people were overstressed, overtired, and overworked."

Everything happens for a reason, Joy tells George. "Every problem has a gift for you in its hands as my man Richard Bach says. You can choose to see the curse or the gift. And this one choice will determine if your life is a success story or one big soap opera... So choose wisely." A forced choice, though, which George has to make, is to continue commuting by bus, because the car would be in the workshop for two weeks.

His life lessons on the bus begin with rule #1 - that he is the driver of his bus. The most important rule, this is, emphasises Joy; if you don't take responsibility for your life, "you'll always be at the whim of everyone else's travel plans." Of course, you can seek directions and advice along the way, but remember it's your bus and your trip, teaches Joy. "The problem today is that people feel like they have no say where their bus is going or how it's going to get there." A dreadful stat is that `more people die Monday morning at 9 am than at any other time'; perhaps, right at the start of a workweek, they give up rather than go to work.

The second rule reads: `Desire, vision, and focus move your bus in the right direction.' There is an energy to thought, so it is important to spend your time thinking about what you do want rather than what you don't want, counsels Joy. "We are winners, not whiners."

Rule 3 is about fuelling your ride with positive energy, for that is high-octane fuel; negative energy causes sludge to accumulate in your energy pipeline. Counting your blessings can make you feel great; "being grateful floods the body and brain with positive endorphins and emotions, and combined with walking is a powerful energy booster."

A read to rev you up for the Monday and all the days thereafter.

SayCheek@TheHindu.co.in