Day 5 of 100

This is the point where every thought in my head is to quit this project.

“You don’t have a 100 stories to tell.”

“No one wants to see 100 photos of you.”

It can be unrelenting.

You see negativity is simple. We have practiced it our entire lives. Our parents used it to motivate us. Our teachers asked us to focus on what we’ve done wrong and asked us to fix it.

I call this the Gold Star problem. When I was a kid I had teachers that would reward a perfect paper by sticking a gold star on the corner of the page and write some sort of platitude.

When I got questions wrong, I could correct them to be awarded a gold star.

What did this teach me?

The only thing that mattered was perfection and the way to get perfect was to fix my mistakes. So I seek out the negative to correct it. I am good at seeing what is wrong with me, and struggle to always see what’s right.

But what if I flipped that? What if I looked for the positive and tried to repeat it? How would my life change?

Enter the full length mirror. I bought it a few years ago and most days I stand in front of it and point out things I like about my body. I review the positivity in my life.

Yes, I practice positivity much like I was practicing negativity when young.

And most every day I get a gold star.