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It’s difficult to imagine what it’s like for those who never learned how to read. Can you even fathom such a handicap? I don’t think I can. Ponder all the small things you read throughout any given day. Whether it’s a heading on a newspaper, a magazine cover, an address, or a piece of mail. How in the world would you ever get along without this imperative skill you’ve become complacent with? We definitely take our ability to read for granted. It must be terrible for those who tackle the world each day with no literacy skills. Fortunately there are things to be done about it. Anyone who is willing can learn to read. It just requires a bit of effort and patience on their part. In reality most of us could use a little reading improvement.

I am one who will fully admit that I should read more. I believe most of us need some reading improvement. We simply don’t push ourselves. Most folks are so concerned with what’s on television, that they totally discarded the notion of reading novels. Yes, I know, this sounds quite dismal when you say it out-loud. It sounds like we’re actually digressing as a race, as opposed to evolving toward a higher intellect. We don’t want that. With me, reading improvement lies in the grasping of content at a faster pace. I want to be one of those individuals who can just pick up a book and start reading through it like it’s nothing. Regardless of the text level. I want to spend 30 seconds tops on each page. This would be phenomenal. Not to mention that speed reading improvement would have helped me dramatically back in college. As an English major, you’re given way too much stuff to read. And when you’re forced to tackle a book each week in three different classes, it suddenly becomes overwhelming. Who can deal with all that and work at the same time. I could barely stay afloat at times.

My seven year old daughter is certainly my primary focus these days when it comes to reading improvement. She is grasping the new terms and their meanings rather well, but she still lacks focus. She’s too easily distracted and mispronounces words. I took it upon myself to purchase modern-day kids games that aid with reading improvement. So far this is awesome.

People have been touting the power of positive thinking for a long time, but recently science started to back it up. It seems like every day I see some article about positive self esteem and how it improves health and happiness. If we are to believe the experts, thinking positively can increase longevity, improve thinking skills, and make us more likely to succeed in day to day tasks. It is clear that the power of positive thinking has gone beyond hype and established itself as a firm fact of life. Just as how, through the power of negative thinking, we can doom ourselves to repeated patterns of failure, through positive thought we can succeed despite the greatest of obstacles.

I recently took a  positive thinking course that really had a profound effect on me. In many ways, it was a little bit difficult to get past my initial skepticism. We would use tools like positive affirmations  to try to brainwash ourselves into thinking more positively. I knew that it was a course in programming yourself to have certain attitudes, but I thought that there was nothing wrong with that. Still, doing it in a room filled with thousands of people all eager to convince themselves that everything would go well if they only put their mind to it was a little bit frightening at times.

Still, there is no denying that the positive attitudes that I developed through that course have had results. Ever since I studied the power of positive thinking, I have found myself to be happier, more socially outgoing, and more successful in my everyday tasks. I have gotten a promotion, began to work on several projects that I had put off for years at a time, and in general gotten into a healthier, happier place than I used to be. My relationship is even going better, and I had thought that it was doomed before I took the course. Although the power of positive thinking hasn’t completely revolutionized my life, it has definitely made itself known.

A lot of people get intimidated by the thought of going to a large convention, and instead read a book on positive thought. In my opinion, this is a mistake. The power of positive thinking, of course, can be learned through a book, but it is much easier to learn through social interaction with positive, outgoing people. In order to put the power of positive thought into action, it has to go beyond an idea for you. When you are actually trying to learn the techniques in the company of other people, it makes them more real.