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You know... the age-old question, "Is the glass half empty or half full?" I suppose it was meant to detect whether one was basically an optimist or a pessimist. According to an early mentor of mine, the question is meaningless and really ought to be, "Is there enough water in the glass?"

Of course, that begs the follow-up question, "Enough for what?" To put out the Chicago fire? No. To water the little potted palm plant on my desk? Yes.

The issue of enough-ness is certainly an important one. "Am I talented enough to create the result I'm after?" "Am I ambitious enough to stick with "what-ever-it-is" long enough to create a win?" Yes, the issue of “enough” surely seems worthy of our consideration. I invite you to see if it makes choice clearer for you. Rather than say, "Do I want this?" ask, "Do I want this enough to spend half of next month's rent on it?" And instead of wondering, "Am I pretty?" ask, "Am I pretty enough to attract the kind of partner I'm interested in." Avoid confusing vaguery. Factor in the "enough-ness" quotient.

Let’s take things one step further... “Enough.” My dictionary tells me it means “an adequate amount of.” To discern the “enough-ness” of something, my attention would need to be on “what is” rather than on “what is lacking” in it. That being true, I now begin to see another important benefit to this “enough-ness” thing. If I need to have my attention on what “is” rather than on what “isn’t,” I am going to be dealing within the realm of the positive. If I historically focus on what is missing, leading me to fear or doubt, I dwell in the realm of the negative – the absence of something.

When you consider the fact that no one ever built anything out of something that "wasn’t there," the importance of having our attention on what “is there” becomes obvious, and the choice to do so would now seem extremely practical.

If you tend to focus on what is missing, or on what you wish were true, or on anything other than what is actually there, right in front of and available to you, you are courting frustration and failure. Start training yourself to be more “positive.” By that I mean, put your attention on what “is.” What are your talents? What are your attributes? What is the nature of the task at hand? What does it require? Do you need to fill in the gaps your skills don’t cover by employing or partnering with other people?

By changing your focus from “what is missing” to “what is there,” you are inviting dramatic, positive change into your life. It’s a simple little shift that took me decades to discover, but could bring you practically immediate beneficial results. Let me know how you do with it.