In his latest book, Aspire Higher, Ken Lindner offers a road map.
“We are living in a country that is beset by pervasive shootings and violence, division, distrust, racism, vitriol, fear paralysis, anxiety, depression,” says Ken Lindner, founder of Positive Life Choice Psychology. “I believe that in my new book, Aspire Higher: How to Find the Love, Positivity, and Purpose to Elevate Your Life and the World! (which was released Nov. 16 in hardback), I have developed such a formula and provide the achievable, tangible and actionable steps that will equip, enable and empower the reader to lay a golden path to soul-lifting, enduring self-love and feelings of high self-esteem and self-worth; unconditional love and support for others; mutual understanding and respect; and peace among all people, groups and countries.” We checked in for his words of wisdom.
Why did you write Aspire Higher? Our country is going through a difficult time with all of the shootings, violence, division, distrust, racism and vitriol, as well as the devastating effects of COVID-19 and alleged global warming. It’s no wonder that our spirits can become deflated and our positivity is dwindling! With all this negativity, many cannot see a way up or out, or a bright, inspiring light at the end of this highly challenging tunnel.
Many individuals have said and written that ‘We need more love, positivity, unity and peace in the world!’ I agree, but no one has given us a formula to attain those wonderful aspirations. In Aspire Higher, I share the clear, actionable steps that everyone can take to instill authentic love, positivity and peace in their hearts and in our country and our world... and it all starts by making positive life choices that reflect your highest self, your highest values and your highest goals.
Why are positive life choices so important? Making positive life choices is essential to elevating your life! This is why I founded Positive Life Choice Psychology.
Our choices are like train tracks. Trains go where the tracks take them; similarly, our lives are a reflection of the positive and poor choices that we make. So, the steps to living your very best life are to aspire higher by making positive life choices that reflect your highest self and your highest values and goals, and then follow through by putting those life-lifting choices into action. By doing this, you begin to develop the empowering core confidence that you can effect hugely beneficial change in your life by consistently making positive life choices. As a sweet result, you elevate your feelings of self-esteem and self-worth, along with your self-image. All of this will motivate and inspire you to make more and more positive choices as you love seeing and experiencing the fantastic improvement in your life! The beautiful end result is that you have jump-started your life in the most positive and fulfilling ways!
Why is developing strong feelings of self-love so essential in the process of elevating ourselves, others, our country and the world? When we make enough large and small positive life choices, we begin to develop feelings of authentic self-love. It is then that we feel that we truly deserve and are worthy of the sweet fruits of our positive life choices. And once we feel love in our hearts for ourselves and we love the direction that our life is going, we will be far more likely to be motivated to bestow love, compassion, mutual respect, civility, caring and empathy onto others. This process will lead us down the golden path to enjoying mutual respect, unity, positivity, collaboration, compassion and peace in our country and our world.
Once again, it all starts with making large and small empowering positive life choices!
Why is negating “The Negativity Bias” that looms in varying degrees in all of us and mastering potentially toxic emotions so important in our quest to enjoy sustained positivity, optimism and feelings of high self-esteem and self-worth? Scientists say that we are all hard-wired to focus more on the negative events in our lives than the positive, and that the negativity stays with us longer. So, if you’re already feeling demoralized, depressed, fearful and anxiety-ridden, ‘The Negativity Bias’ can cause us to spiral downward even further and make life choices that make us feel good for the moment, but don’t reflect our highest self or highest values. In seeking immediate gratification, we often make destructive and self-sabotaging choices as they are inconsistent with and can be detrimental to our highest values and attaining our long-term goals. When we continue to make poor choices, we feel even worse about ourselves and feel increasingly more impotent to make the positive life choices in the future that can truly elevate our lives. So this can become a hugely deleterious cycle of destructive and self-sabotaging decision-making.
It’s the same thing with making decisions when our best judgment is clouded by potentially toxic emotions, such as anger, fear, sadness, resentment, depression and the like. We lack discipline and we opt to make choices that are quick-fix Band-Aids, that are inconsistent with our highest selves, values and goals, and, in time, these choices make us feel badly about ourselves, our lives and our ability to get our lives on a significantly better track.
In Aspire Higher, I explain how to negate ‘The Negativity Bias’ and master your potentially toxic emotions that can dismantle your best judgment when you make your decisions and choices.
Why are you personally paying all of the expenses regarding the editing, printing, shipping and promotion of Aspire Higher, and why is mass readership of your book so important? I finished writing Aspire Higher this August and when I went to traditional publishing houses to discuss publishing it, they said that they needed between a year and 18 months to release it. As I wanted Aspire Higher to be published in 2021 and in time for the holidays—as we so need love, positivity and the steps to elevate our lives NOW!—I went to an excellent publisher, Greenleaf, who could get Aspire Higher released in November, but I would have to pay all of the expenses, which I was happy to do in order to share Aspire Higher with everyone for the holidays.
Very much like the theory of herd immunity—in that if enough individuals get vaccinated, we can have a healthier country—if enough people start making life choices that reflect their highest selves and values, we’re far more likely to enjoy a more peace-filled, love-filled and respect-filled country and world. So I’m now identifying organizations that can be of service by providing free copies of Aspire Higher to all those individuals, schools, etc., who can’t afford to buy them. This is how we can attain mass readership of Aspire Higher and a much more loving and positive country and world.
Why did you feel that it was so important to release Aspire Higher for the holiday season and new year?Aspire Higher is all about giving readers the clear, actionable steps through making positive life choices to instill feelings of positivity, optimism, confidence and love in their hearts. I can think of no better time than the holidays to share love, optimism and positivity with everyone, which they in turn can bestow on others.
The new year is a time to reset and improve your life and recharge your spirit. In Aspire Higher, I explain how to jump-start your life though making positive and highly beneficial large and small life choices. The new year is the perfect time to enjoy a great and exhilarating life and spirit reboot and jump-start!
Where can you purchase Aspire Higher? You can go to positiv elifechoicepsychology.com to purchase Aspire Higher, or to barnesandnoble.com, amazon.com, indiebound.org, booksamillion.com, target.com, walmart.com and many other top-tier booksellers.
