Be Positive Day is an annual initiative launched by Stephanie Vermeulen, founder of National Be Positive Day and author of EQ: Emotional Intelligence for Everyone. While conducting seminars on emotional intelligence, she became deeply aware of the level of negativity in the country. In 2000 she decided to do something about it, and the Be Positive initiative was born.
Vermeulen comments: "Nowadays, many companies have come to the fore with patriotic advertising campaigns and, with the efforts of the International Marketing Council of South Africa and Proudly South African, we now have more and more proof that attitudes in South Africa are shifting. Research Surveys recently conducted a national study showing that South Africans are happier and more content than we have been in a long while."
This, Vermeulen believes, is good for the economy and the country as a whole. From the thinking on EQ, she knows how much the idea of having faith in ourselves impacts upon our ability to make our own lives work. On a national level, the benefits escalate; so when millions of people are positive, the force becomes really potent. Building on the positive mood in the country, Vermeulen is calling on South Africans to project into the next 10 years and to 'make a difference'.
So, apart from being awarded the 2010 World Cup, what have we got to be positive about? In his book South Africa: Reasons to Believe, Guy Lundy provides a host of reasons that can be used to proudly fluff out our South African feathers:
