On Monday, I mentioned that March is National Optimism Month. While Monday's message was met with appreciation in some areas of the Winner's Circle Network, I have been taken to task by a few readers who wrote that they think I have lost connection with reality. Maybe I have, but maybe not.

If you read the daily news, or listen to the radio (especially some talk radio shows), it is not easy to see much that is positive. The last few weeks have been particularly difficult, especially here in my own Pacific Northwest.  And, it being an election year, the rhetoric can certainly get you down - if you let it.

Let's put a little perspective to the negative:  There are roughly 7 billion people on good old Planet Earth. That means that on any given day, there are probably a minimum of 7 billion stories being lived. Now, take today's newspaper or your favorite news app, and count the negative stories. How many do you find? 50? 100? 200?

Now, compare that against 7 billion. A pretty small percentage. In fact, at 200 stories, it works out to 0.000000028% - at least that's as far as my calculator will go. We now that the news philosophy is, "If it bleeds, it leads." But are you going to listen to the 0.000000028%, or go looking for the 99.99999972% that has a good chance of being positive?

What I'm saying is that you can certainly find the negative, if that's what you go looking for. But the reverse is also true. If you go looking for the positive, if you go about looking for solutions instead of problems, you will find them. And which is going to make you happier?

The decision is yours to make, and in case you are still wondering, I choose to look for the positive.