“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” ~Winston Churchill
Choosing to be positive will help you to become the person you want to be. Even when things seem difficult right now, being positive—and striving to make the best of whatever situation you are in—really does make even the most challenging situations easier to bear.
It doesn’t always come natural — sometimes it’s a lot of work — but hopefully these simple 5 steps will make it so much easier to see the good in life.
Step One: Believe a Positive Attitude is a Choice
Teaching yourself that positivity is a choice may well be one of the greatest things you will ever do for myself.
When you find yourself in a bad situation, remember that it’s up to you to find the good, to be positive regardless of what’s happening around you. Don’t point fingers and place blame. Everything happens how it happens, and it’s up to you to choose how you want to feel about it. You are in control of your attitude, and no one can take that away from you.
Step Two: Rid Your Life of Negativity
If you want to live a positive, joyful life, you cannot be surrounded by negative people who don’t encourage your happiness.
If you are a negative person, you will attracted negative people. No one is perfect—and perfection isn’t the goal when it comes to positivity, but if you can step away from the negative influence around you it will make a significant difference.
In addition to removing negative influences from your life, you also need to work on removing your own negative behaviours. Take a step back and examine which behaviours are good for you and which are not.
Step Three: Look For the Positive in Life
In every person, in every situation, there is something good. Most of the time it’s not obvious. We have to look. And sometimes we have to look hard.
When faced with a difficult or challenging situation, think to yourself, “What is good about this?” No matter how terrible the situation might seem, if you look hard enough and take the time to think about it, you will always find something good.
Everything—good and bad—is a learning experience so, at the very least, you can learn from bad experiences. However, there’s usually even more to it than that. If you really take the time to look, you will usually find something good, something genuinely positive, about every person or situation.
Step Four: Reinforce Positivity in Yourself
Once you starts thinking more positively, you need to reinforce these thoughts and behaviours in yourself so that they stick. As with any sort of training, the more you practice, the better you get—and, yes, you can practice being positive.
The best and easiest way to do this is to be positive when it comes to who you are. Tell yourself you’re awesome. Tell yourself you look good. Tell yourself you did a great job at work or raising your kids or whatever it is you do.
Be honest with yourself, but do your best to look for the good. And, whatever you do, don’t focus on the negative. It’s okay to not like everything about yourself, but don’t focus on what you don’t like. We all have positive attributes, and it’s up to you to remind yourself of them every day.
Step Five: Share Positivity with Others
Not only do you need to be positive with yourself for this training to really take effect, but you need to be positive with others. You have to share your wealth of positivity with the world.
Be nice to other people, no matter what. Tell someone they looks nice today. Tell someone they did a great job.
Tell your parents or children (or both!) how much you love them and how great they are. When someone is feeling down, do what you can to cheer him or her up. Be kind to all living things.
Try not only to treat others as you would like to be treated, but also try to consider how they would like to be treated. People appreciate positivity, and the more you share it with others, the more you are practicing it your own life.
#ThinkPositive #BePositive
