What if you believed the world was conspiring to HELP you?

Have you ever heard of pronoia?

I was talking to author and psychologist, Owen Fitzpatrick, about the law of positive intent. 

The law of positive intent says that everyone is just trying to do the best they can with the resources they have.

Think about it - no one wakes up in the morning and says:

I wonder how I can screw things up today?

Owen took it a step further and reminded me of a concept called pronoia.

If in paranoia we fear everybody's out to get us, pronoia is the opposite. Much like JD Salinger described in his book Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour:

‘I'm a kind of a paranoiac in reverse. I suspect people of plotting to make me happy.’

Imagine the universe actually conspiring to help you. That means even obstacles happen to our benefit  — they are another stepping stone towards that thing you want. Perhaps a lesson, perhaps a valuable left turn. 

How can you foster a sense of pronoia in your day to day life?

When you start believing that everything around you is happening to you on purpose, it becomes easier to ask yourself:

• How can I use this?

• What can I learn from this?
  

Reframing the questions you ask yourself when faced with obstacles can unlock vastly different outcomes. Give it a try.

We need to practice - out loud and in our head - asking different questions. What questions could help you turn perceived issues, obstacles, challenges into opportunities?

At first, the questions may feel awkward. The more you practice it, the more natural it will become.

And one more thing…

What's the best way to learn something? Teaching it to someone else. Now that you’ve heard about it, go ahead and share the concept of pronoia with someone else.

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