When you paste on a smile there is something at work that is pretty amazing: facial expressions themselves can actually make us feel. If you wrinkle your nose and narrow your eyes as you would if you were really angry, your body will release some adrenaline and your heart rate may speed up as if you were actually angry. The same thing is true for other emotions. This means that sometimes we should just smile, even if we don't feel like it. As horribly forced as that sounds, there is solid science to back up the notion that this will, in fact, make us feel happier.[1]

Replace smiling with certain patterns of thought and happiness with other purposeful emotions and a similar effect emerges. By considering the impact these patterns have on setting into motion a ripple effect of emotional attitude, activity quality, and, ultimately, desired outcomes, the ingredients to a remarkable cycle takes shape.

There are four phases in this positioning cycle: mindset, emotional attitude or engagement, behavior/activity, and desired results. It’s helpful to think of the first two primarily as triggers and the others as their dependent outcomes, their priority and direction matter tremendously.

Mindset is the epicenter of productivity – your mindset impacts your emotional state. Emotional state is what largely determines input quality, so effectively understanding and influencing it is crucial. Input quality is a leading predictor of outcomes, more so than quantity, so focusing exclusively on behaviors and activities tends to under produce. Ordering matters. When certain phases are overemphasized or others bypassed, desired result tend to act like sand in your hand – they’re elusive.

-The Positioning Cycle| Mindset Positioning


[1] Carter, C. (2009, 2014). http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/raisi.... Retrieved September 2, 2015.