“Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.”
– Dr. Michael Beckwith

Due to our exposure to the media, our upbringing in our school system, and our family of origin, most of us go out into the world looking for what’s not working. We look for it in our education, relationships, at work, and most critically in ourselves. Our newspapers are filled with more bad news than good. In school we get red circles for wrong answers rather than gold stars for the right ones. With a spouse, we might enter therapy because we’ve lost sight of what was working by focusing on the small differences. At work, we are more often reprimanded for our faults, then praised for our successes.

If you’re a fact checker, copyeditor, or maintenance supervisor, you’re supposed to be looking for what you can fix. But for the rest of us, it’s a sad way to approach life. Looking for what’s wrong and for what’s not working does not open our eyes and our minds to the possibilities all around us for what is working and what’s right with our world.

Can you imagine going out into your day and looking for what’s good, looking for positive evidence? Looking for the checkmarks next to all the right answers on your tests, and learning from your missed answers. Appreciating all the great qualities in your loved ones, and working together to strengthen the weak areas. Getting a bonus at your job for showing up and being a responsible, respectful employee. and offering appreciation and respect to your superiors and associates.

And of course, focusing and valuing what we love most about ourselves, then working on improving our weaker areas. Working with a life coach would be a great way to start learning to look for positive evidence in your life and especially in yourself. You have years of conditioning to unlearn. You need to retrain your eyes and your mind to be a positive evidence seeking missile.

You know the story of the person who decides to buy a red sports car of a certain manufacturer and all of a sudden starts to notice a lot of them on the road? Maybe they’ve never noticed them before. But when you tell yourself you want to notice something, you’re retraining your brain. You tell it, “Let me look for what’s right today. Let me tell someone today how much I appreciate them.” Start your day this way, and you’ll be amazed at the difference it makes in your life.

As you are focused more on the positive evidence around you, more will come into your life, since you are acting like a magnet. It’s called the Law of Attraction, and it works all the time. You just need to work it to attract more of what you want. Additionally, your work life will improve greatly, your relationships with others will turn around, and your relationship with yourself will transform.