How to be positively delusional | Hannah Ajala | TEDxSurreyUniversity

so what is positive delusion I’m gonna

definitely like to be confident in

saying that I did coin the term

and I believe it’s it’s a mindset it’s a

way of being it’s a way of thinking and

it’s a way of feeling positive delusion

is telling yourself that you’re going to

lose five stone in six months you have

no idea how you’re going to make that

happen you have no idea what kind of

stuff you’re going to eat or what the

planning process towards it is going to

be like but it’s your mindset that is

making you believe that that is going to

become a reality and of course your

actions are gonna NATO and match that to

so I’m sure we have some music fans here

has anyone had a DJ can it okay great we

know about dj khaled well funny enough

he’s not actually a DJ which is quite

ironic he’s an American music producer

um and you know his music is you know

really successful gets millions of

streams worldwide sold-out concerts etc

but over the past year I’ve actually

seen him as quite a bit of a

motivational speaker follow him on

snapchat Instagram and I absolutely love

the way that he just speaks about his

positivity about life you know famous

quotes we the best we’re gonna win be

ready they don’t want you to do a TEDx

talk at the University of Surrey so many

words of motivation I continuously found

really uplifting and then recently I

read a bit about his backstory and the

fact that once upon a time he actually

lived in his car and it made me question

was he a motivational speaker then did

he always know he was gonna win and I

know exactly what he used he used

positive delusion now thinking back to

where I first heard about the term or

the word delusion in a sense of being

positive was when I saw June Sarpong

speak at a talk about a couple of years

ago and I was success talks and I got

two loads of talks as a journalist loads

of networking events what I found so

empowering about

what she said was when being asked you

know how did you get successful like how

did you actually make it in such a

competitive industry of the media she

said sometimes you have to be a bit to

lose it now just to give you a back

story on her I have practically been

brought up with her my TV screen and she

presented on kiss 100 and MTV and I

think what I found amazing it was the

fact that I had a positive

representation of a black woman watching

her on TV simply do her thing and

unfortunately I have to still maintain

that mindset being a black woman working

in a predominately white environment I

have to fight a lot harder than a white

counterpart but I used that as

motivation to ensure that I work hard

and the results are a reflection of that

also there’s actually something quite

significant about me even standing here

today at the University of Surrey so who

goes to the University of Surrey okay

Wow sorry massive shout-out to you guys

so I’m sure you will remember what it

was like finding out that you got into

the University of Surrey right so the

night before you’re so anxious you’re so

nervous you know you wake up to see that

it’s the day it’s a results day finally

you log into you Cass and you see

whether you’ve got in or not if it

doesn’t crash out for me so you snapchat

about it the good news obviously you’ve

got in you snapped out and you tweet it

you Facebook it with a million emojis oh

my god I’m going to University of Surrey

you tell your friends and your family

and at the end of the day you are

absolutely makkad because you barely

slept the night before and then you get

a call from that University of your

dreams telling you sorry

we accidentally offered you a place we

were meant to actually reject you guys

that was me and six years later I’m

standing at the University doing a TEDx

talk the University that rejected me

um and I think it’s all about the

mindset delay is never denial things

that we thought that would happen that

don’t always happen straight away I do

believe it’s a part of a greater plan

that we may not see straight away and I

think a lot of that has to do with

taking that really big leap of faith now

there are five steps to positive

Tunisian and I trust me I am so set and

they all work if you all follow that

initiative and just believe in yourself

so the first step is to actually say

what it is you want speak into existence

and speaking into existence is a very

significant thing about me even standing

here today so what is it that you want

to happen do you want to pass your

driving test in a year do you want to

get married in two years do you want to

no longer be in the job that you’re in

now but a better job in a month’s time

speak into existence the second point is

to plan it okay so how’s this going to

happen let’s be strategic about it is it

going to take six months to do is it

going to take three months to do how

realistic is it the third point is to

ask questions as a budding journalist I

was very active on social media and I

would continuously contacts so many

journalists that I just highly respected

I would ask them questions like how did

you do it so what was the process of

doing X Y & Z and I saw it as motivation

and an amazing quote that good artists

copy great artists steal the fourth

point is to actually prepare for

rejection because oh you’re gonna get

loads of it you’re gonna get loads of

unfortunately is I got used to seeing so

many unfortunately is I just open the

email and would close it straightaway

but I do believe that these rejections

are a massive test of character and I

tell several of my friends you know when

that one door closes and you’re waiting

for the next one to open you’re in a

hallway right to the ceremony in a

hallway that doors close are closed

you’re waiting for the next one to open

how’s your attitude how are you gonna be

during that process are you going to be

twiddling your thumbs nervously

are you gonna be angry or you can be

frustrated or are you gonna do what I do

and dance in the hallway whilst you’re

waiting for that next door to open

because I believe that it’s your

attitude and characters during the tap

the trial that would determine the

outcome of the testimony and lastly

believe in yourself believe in your

sleigh as I say

non-stop give yourself a pat on the back

for how far you’ve come and the fact

that you even have the balls to say I’m

gonna be positively delusional now I’ve

touched on my industry a bit I do work

in the industry which is ridiculously

competitive very tiring and often you do

question yourself when your abilities as

to whether you’re really fit for the

role and I think that’s where being

positively delusional also plays a

massive part so I remember being a

wannabe journalist at the age of 16 17 I

always used to say um I’m an aspiring

journalist I never thought like I fully

owned that crown but I was still out

there and doing it I would literally

grab a friend a smartphone and just

create content and uploaded on my

YouTube channel on my Facebook tell

friends about it and continuously get

feedback and I repetitively kept on

doing that again and again just

releasing that content because with the

feedback I got it really uplifted me and

it really made me feel so confident in

my abilities to become the journalist

that I was slowly becoming didn’t

realize but the journalist that I was

soon to be and now work at the world’s

biggest Broadcasting Corporation and the

journey is something that I will never

never regret I mean to some it may have

happened fast because it happened at a

convenient time in life but I focused