High time Goans get Positive

By Mr. Plastino D'Costa

Engage a Goan in a conversation, and the story he might tell you will be of misery, if you happen to be a silent listener, he will make sure you have pity on him and everybody in Goa, the closer the relationship the worse the story. Are Goans really in such a bad shape or is it a case of seeing the glass half empty?

With such a negative mindset embedded, how can we expect our GenerationNext to perform? Of course things are not great in Goa, but they are not hopeless either. It is everybody's duty to point out the wrongs of the society, but strictly in the hope of making a better future, and not tocreate a pessimistic society.

We are used to talking negative all the time, that it has become a part of our lives. Goa might be the only place where Goans actually pay money to watch Konkani plays where actors proudly advertise that they are Tragedy Kings or Tragedy Queens or whatever. It means tragedy sells in Goa, thereby making it slowly a pessimistic society. Even Bollywood gave up on their tragedy king's long time ago, because it did not reflect the society anymore.

Children during their formative years look up to their elders for guidance,and eventually behave like them. If you create an environment of pessimism, even if they are born to succeed, we might be conditioning them to fail. Adolescent age is full of hope,desires, dreams and a pessimistic society could stifle all that.

Today Indian society is all about confidence and confidence comes when you think positive. Why should Goa be any different? Thinking positive is the only way our chances increase in finding a solution to a problem. Our GenerationNext might acquire the best of education in schools and colleges, but without a positive attitude most of it will be neutralized with the systematic negative influence of our society.

Having negative thoughts and feelings are not uncommon, but when negative feelings outnumber the positive ones it affects performance, growth, happiness. When people are negative it affects their self-confidence. Goans who talk negative might actually be using negative psychology, little knowing that it actually affects them also. Conscious or sub-conscious negative talk should be discouraged from the society.

Thinking negative might be justified for our past generation, as they lived in a period of transition from an easy Portuguese Past to a difficult uncertain Indian future and no transition is easy. But now India's future is not uncertain anymore and our GenerationNext has no excuse to think negative or feel hopeless.

Positive thinking eventually helps in getting the job done. Imagine, you rise early morning and you have an important assignment at hand for the day, if your mind believes you will succeed, chances are high you will succeed, however, if your mind believes you will not, whatever chances you had to succeed becomes nil. You will achieve what your mind believes in.

Positive thinking people give positive vibes and this reflects on people close to them, and those people will take it to others and eventually the whole society will be full of people with positive attitude. Remember we are all born to succeed, if Goans can succeed outside Goa, then why not in Goa, it means Goan environment needs to be made conducive for success.

Meantime, authorities can do their bit, to put an end to dishing too much tragedy in the name of entertainment. If sex and violence is bad and controlled by censors, let there be, control on excessive tragedy shown in the form of entertainment. If sex and violence corrupts the society then depicting tragedy for no reason makes the population timid. We need confident Goans and we need to remove all obstacles that come in the way.

Why bother about this Tiatr going Goan? Because, come election-day and this negative thinking, tragedy seeking timid Goan, by his sheer strength of his number, declares the verdict on our face, it is this Goan who neutralizes the positive vote. Unfortunately he is in majority at the moment.

Goans in position of influence on the society choose to ignore this subject. Of course there is an incentive for vote seekers to keep the population timid, so that they depend on them for every small thing. But Goans who sincerely want to change society for the better can do their bit by making sure people in their circle change their mindset from negative to positive.

Remember all systems are designed to work, even the Goan system, be it the government, bureaucratic or the private sector. All systems have to get the job done, it has to complete the loop, there might be loop holes in the system, but by thinking positive you can actually focus on the loop and not the loop holes.

If we need Goa to change, we need to change the mindset of Goans from pessimism to optimism. The government does not control the way you think. Of course it might putobstacles,but once you think positive, you will overcome these obstacles, COME WHAT MAY.

Above Article first appeared on Herald - Goa on 24th May 2006