Cornell Thomas on Positivity – Special Edition 4 of 4

Podcast about positivity with Cornell Thomas.

The question is, do you choose to believe that we live in a friendly universe, or not?

Hey and… Why does the spell-checker in any of the computer programs I use underline the word “positivity” as if it’s being misspelled, or not a word? I think that alone gives us an idea of where things are.

This is the final episode of a 4-part special edition series of “Journeys with the No Schedule Man” as we reflect back upon the journey of this project so far and take a few moments to recognize some of the key developments along the way.

Over the last 3 weeks, we’ve explored some powerful principles, including:

Possibility, digging in and doing the work with David Ciccarelli of Voices.com (Special Edition Ep. 1)

Choice with Sara Westbrook (Special Edition Ep. 2)

Reinvention with Gair Maxwell (Special Edition Ep. 3)

In my opinion, this episode brings all the previous three “special edition” episodes together; it’s what you want that to look like? It’s the over-arching principle you’d like to follow – your default operating system.

Do you choose to believe we live in a benevolent world, or not?

Catching up with Cornell in downtown Toronto in April 2017.

Believing Is Seeing

I have found out through trial and a lot of error that there is only one common denominator between every and any experience I’ve ever had or will have. And that is … yours truly. When you are the only thing that is consistent wherever you go, whatever you’re experiencing and whatever you’re doing, it stands to reason that your worldview, your automatic thought, your assumption and belief about the way things are, is going to shape your experience.

It’s funny. When you tell yourself the world is a miserable place, you seem to see a lot of miserable people. I used to be like that. But when you believe it’s good and you believe that people are good and you’re looking for good things, inevitably, you’re going to find them.

Case in point: After I had started this podcast and had established my rhythm and routine of looking for people I thought were interesting, positive, and creative people that would have something to contribute to the show, my efforts eventually led me across the profile of one Cornell Thomas.

Now, I appreciate everyone I meet. I feel like I can learn something from every single person I come across. And I especially appreciate those who give of their time and of themselves to be on this podcast. But every now and again, somebody comes along and rockets into my life in a way that makes me believe that we must have been related or best pals in a former life or something of that nature because within moments, you can’t imagine that you ever did not know this person before.

Such was the case with Cornell Thomas.

When I first connected with Cornell, something magical happened that I don’t know how to explain. I enjoy and am completely grateful for the connection I have with every single guest on the this show. But every now and then, it’s just different.

Talking with Cornell was one of those times.

With my son Jaden this past July, on “Cornell Drive.”

Finding Family

In the time since, we have remained connected, my sons know who he is and listen to his podcast.

My youngest son in particular adores him. He even noticed a street sign while we were on vacation that said Cornell Drive and ordered me to stop the car and get out and take a photo.

And when Cornell came into Toronto, Ontario on a business trip and had just a couple of open hours, I got up at about 5:00 in the morning and drove all the way there to see him just because I knew it would be worth my while to spend even a little bit of time face-to-face with him, just hoping that a little bit of his magic would rub off on me. And it has.

In the time since we first connected, both of us have continued to accelerate in our efforts to make a positive difference in the world and in our community in general. In Cornell’s case, he’s since begun to produce his weekly podcast called “Population Unplugged” and has just released his third book, “Extra-Ordinary: The Distance Between Good and Great.”

So although it wasn’t all that long ago that we did our initial episode, I just had to bring Cornell back to wrap up this special edition series and poise us to launch into the next phase of this podcast adventure. And he is the only one that I have asked to join me to create a new segment together. That’s how we started things off this time around: