Fresh Ideas

Positive thinking induces happiness and fosters creativity.

By Jaimal Yogis

At the weekly office meeting, you find yourself complaining you have too much to do and not enough time. This lament is strangely familiar—perhaps because you and your co-workers voice it every week. And yet week after week nothing changes. Instead, your creative energy and morale plummet. What's a frustrated worker to do?

Shift your perspective, advises Sue Frederick, the author of Dancing at Your Desk: A Metaphysical Guide to Job Happiness and BrilliantDay: 7 Quick Solutions to Turn Your Day Around (Frederick Malowany Publishing, 2004). "Focusing on problems brings you to the low end of your energy continuum," explains the longtime meditator. "Start thinking about solutions, and your energy shifts."

Frederick says an energy continuum is like a fuel gauge: Positive thinking brings you to full, where you're creative and happy, while negativity inches you toward empty. "People feel empty at work because they're addicted to feeling like victims," she says.

Frederick, who coaches corporations on how to boost worker morale, says an easy way to cultivate a positive outlook is to suggest three solutions to every problem. No matter how wacky, they'll automatically begin to raise your fuel gauge and open your mind-and maybe even your boss's-to new possibilities. And that's when genuine, innovative solutions can be found.

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