Contagious Positivity

Last week I put a sign on a bulletin board in our department. It simply read: Think Good Thoughts.

Every day since then, I've been posting an article that I find in the newspaper that has some kind of positive message in it. Sometimes it's about the economy and sometimes, because I work in advertising, its about an emerging market or a new way of looking at an old problem.

The other day, for example, I posted an article about a new take on hair salons.

Instead of simply being a place where women go to get their hair cut, one entrepreneurial fellow in Toronto has opened a shop where women simply go for a shampoo and blow dry. Every woman reading this will nod her frizzy head in agreement -- unless we grow another hand, there is no way we could ever match the perfection of a salon blow dry.

The cost for the service is a manageable amount -- something like $25. The women interviewed for the article all raved that a salon blow dry lasts 3 or 4 days and, once you factor in the cost of shampoo, product and time spent with styling appliances, you could even justify a twice a week spend to have perfectly coiffed locks twice a week.

Not to mention, the salon is creating a kind of community -- a community that our Mothers know all too well. My Mom's been getting her hair done on the same day, from the same woman for the last 25 years!

There you go. A modern way of looking at an old problem. And a business that's finding a clientelle, even in these troubling times.

That's what happens when you Think Good Thoughts.

Because I'm consciously looking for good news stories, I've also become acutely aware of how much doom and gloom is being spread in mainstream media. There are two kinds of stories these days -- 1) we're going to hell in a hand cart or 2) the octo-Mom is driving the cart.

The thing is: it's easier to go with the negative flow, if that's the only perspective you're being presented with.

Then yesterday something really amazing happened. And I still tear up when I think about it.

When I went to post my good thought of the day, someone else had gotten there first. An anonymous poster had found their own good thought and silently added it to all the others on the board.

My own good thoughts came boomeranging right back to me.

Wow. It's working.