Its fashionable in the Uk, to diss stuff, everything really from celebrities, we build them up and we knock them down, its sooooo predictable (except for a few stalwarts who are the nation’s favourites you gotta love Brucie !) to food, our roads, our weather - anything is fair game !

I don’t really understand this attitude – I really just don’t get it ! In my travels in other countries I don’t see this – I mean, sure they acknowledge their counties problems but they’re also proud of their countries – They certainly don’t do that knowing sarcastic half smile and then soundly trounce it !

So I got to wondering, why this is? I’ve been pondering this and I think its because we don’t like to raise our hopes because they’ve been dashed in the past. Children certainly don’t seem to ascribe to this cynicism, so it must come later. I think that by the time we’ve become what I’ll loosely term “grown ups” we’ve been kicked in the teeth a few times and probably learned to lower our expectations. Is it nature? Is it nurture?

I think its nurture because while there’s obviously individual differences in people, I don’t see other countries with this bizarre “mustn’t grumble” attitude of “well, it could be worse” Since when did – It could be worse become a reason to get up and go to work in the morning? It certainly doesn’t spur me into action.

There’s a raft of information on change, the individual, the crowd, the society, But what’s the actual tipping point?

Well, that something could be the “broken windows theory” which was the brainchild of Wilson & Gelling, who were criminologists, who argued that crime far from being a nature beating nurture effect was in fact due to the little things, so for instance, crime would be the inevitable result of disorder.

If a window is broken and left unrepaired, people walking by will soon conclude that no-one cares about the building and no-one is in charge. Pretty soon there’ll be more broken windows and this sense of anarchy will spread from this building to the street and beyond to the area. Sending the signal that anything goes and no-one cares, creating a downward spiral.

This is the epidemic theory of crime. It says that crime is contagious – just as a fashion trend is contagious, but here the tipping point isn’t a person or group of people it’s a thing – a broken window.

By the same measure positivity is also contagious. If you doubt me, walk down the street and smile at people – 9 out of ten will smile back at you, especially if you make it a big megawatt smile ! (the other one will be so shocked that someone smiled at them that their reactions will be delayed) So you just introduced some positivity into the world – with a smile. It didn’t cost you anything, its fleeting sure, but so is cleanliness, we have to work at being clean every day, why shouldn’t we work at being a positive contribution too.

So just for today, hang up your negativity hat and try to make everything that comes out of your mouth a positive phrase.

Try it, what harm can it do?