The Power of Positivity
Every morning when we wake up, we are faced with a decision – are we going to have a good attitude and be positive or have a bad attitude and be negative? This seemingly simple decision has the power to have a significant effect on almost every area of our lives.
Some benefits of being positive include having better overall health, a better ability to deal with stressors, being a happier person overall, helping you build skills and develop resources, becoming a better leader, opening your mind, and so on. Whereas being negative actually narrows your mind and thoughts.
I want to be clear; being positive does not mean you become oblivious and ignore all of the tough situations surrounding you. It means that, when faced with one of these tough situations, you have a more positive way of looking at it. In turn, you are able to be resilient and face these situations head–on and come out on top.
What I have realized over the years is the first step in becoming more positive is being aware of how you talk to yourself. This may seem silly to some, but trust me, this is huge. We all have our internal dialogues and thought processes and, often, these are automatic.
When you start to become aware of your internal dialogue, you will begin to realize if you tend to have positive or negative responses to situations. From here, you can begin to alter these thoughts. Meaning, if you have negative responses, they can eventually become automatically positive.
For example, if you are faced with something new and automatically think, “This is new, I’ve never done it before, so I’m scared.” You can change this to “This is an opportunity to learn something new. I could actually be good at this.”
Another key is to find something positive in every situation – even if it seems to be a negative one. If you tried something and failed or made some small mistake, try to figure out an area you did well in, something you learned, or an opportunity you found in the situation.
I want to encourage all of you to hone your ability to be positive. Once you accomplish this, almost every area of your life will change for the better. Not only this, but so will the lives of people around you because, as most of us know, attitudes are contagious.
