Today in History, July 28

Pretzels

A little old lady sold pretzels on a street corner for 25 cents each.

Every day, a young man would leave his office building at lunch time and, as he passed her pretzel stand, he would leave her a quarter, but would never take a pretzel.

This went on for more than five years. The two of them never spoke.

Then one day, the man passed the pretzel stand and left his quarter as usual. A few seconds later, he heard footsteps behind him.

He turned. It was the pretzel woman, who spoke to him for the first time. “Sir, I appreciate your business. You are a good customer, but I have to tell you that the pretzel price has increased to 35 cents.”

Who’s the singer/musician/TV host who was an occasional substitute host for Johnny Carson in addition to co-hosting his own show, and had one Top 40 hit in 1969 with a song written by Charles Aznavour?

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“Yesterday, When I Was Young,” written by Charles Aznavour, was a Top 20 hit in 1969 for the multi-talented Roy Clark who, with Buck Owens, co-hosted the TV series, “Hee Haw.”

DAILY OM

July 28, 2011

As Blessed as You Want to Be

The Power of Staying Positive

Positive thinking dramatically increases your chances of success in any endeavor.

Our thoughts are not simply ethereal pieces of information that enter our minds and then disappear. The words and ideas that we think can shape our lives and drive us toward success and happiness or failure and distress. How you think and feel can have a profound effect on your ability to recognize opportunity, how well you perform, and the outcome of the goals that you’ve set for yourself. When you maintain an optimistic outlook and make an effort to harbor only positive thoughts, you begin to create the circumstances conducive to you achieving what you desire. You feel in control and few of life’s challenges seem truly overwhelming because it is in your nature to expect a positive conclusion. An optimistic mind is also an honest one. Staying positive does not mean that you ignore difficulties or disregard limitations. Instead, it means spending time focusing only on the thoughts that are conducive to your well-being and progress.

Positive thinking dramatically increases your chances of success in any endeavor. When you’re sure that you are worthy and that achievement is within your grasp, you start to relax and look for solutions rather than dwelling on problems. You are more likely to imagine positive situations or outcomes and disregard the thoughts related to giving up, failure, or roadblocks. What the mind expects, it finds. If you anticipate joy, good health, happiness, and accomplishment, then you will experience each one. Thinking positively may sound like a simple shift in attention – and it is – but it is a mind-set that must be developed. Whenever a negative thought enters your mind, try immediately replacing it with a constructive or optimistic one. With persistence, you can condition your mind to judge fleeting, self-defeating thoughts as inconsequential and dismiss them.

It is within your power to become as happy, content, or successful as you make up your mind to be. Staying positive may not have an immediate effect on your situation, but it will likely have a profound and instantaneous effect on your mood and the quality of your experiences. In order for positive thinking to change your life, it must become your predominant mind-set. Once you are committed to embracing positive thinking, you’ll start believing that everything that you want is within your grasp.

Today in Strangeness:

On this date in 1976, a massive earthquake struck the city of Tangshan, China. The official death toll from the quake was an astounding 242,000 people, making it the deadliest earthquake in modern history. Some in China suspect that the true number of fatalities could be double or triple the number reported by Chinese officials.