Do you look for the good or the bad in situations? Is your glass half empty or half full? Positive and negative thoughts can become self-fulfilling prophecies and what we expect can often come true.
Embrace the middle ground
If you approach something thinking that you’re going to lose, the chances are that you will. Whatever chances you may have had for success will most likely be swept away due to lack of effort or support from others. Sometimes you achieve success through varying degrees and achieving the middle ground can be seen as something positive even though it’s not an outright victory.
If you think positively you are able to maintain faith in your ability to succeed. It’s also easier to bring others along with you, building on optimism and confidence as you go along.
Changing a negative into a positive
It may be a sweeping generalisation but people with a positive outlook enjoy more success and are happier and healthier than those who approach life more negatively. But how do you make the change from negativity to having a far more positive approach?
To begin to change your approach to life you first have to recognise the need to do so. It may be something as simple as having allowed a negative approach to become something of a habit. Experts suggest that as individuals we use three dimensions to assess events, permanence, pervasiveness and personalisation. Those with a more positive outlook are at one end of the scale with the more negative amongst us at the other.
- Permanence – This is the belief that something that is being experienced is either a temporary of permanent situation. Those with a more pessimistic outlook are far more likely to expect that the bad times will be a more permanent state of affairs than temporary.
- Pervasiveness – This equates to the belief that if problems have been experienced in one setting it’s likely that the problem will exist wherever you go. If you strongly believe this statement to be true then you’re at the negative end of the scale. Being more scientific pervasiveness is the belief that situational factors cause an effect or that the effect is evidence of more universal factors at work.
- Personalisation – This is the attribution of blame to yourself for something rather than any outside factors that may be present. Those with a more positive approach to life are more likely to look at all the reasons for something happening than those more pessimistic.
Accentuate the positives
Being aware of the way you think is the first step to taking action to re-shape your approach to things. Trying to accentuate the positives in all situations will help to view what happens as opportunities rather than obstacles.
A health issue?
Perennial negative thinking can be a lead in to depression and other mental health problems if not addressed. In such cases simple positive thinking exercises may not suffice alone in easing the issue and further professional guidance may be necessary.
For most people though, focusing on being aware of your negative thoughts and attempting to replace them with a more positive approach can be all that it needs to switch emphasis. It may be that you’re not aware of exactly how negative you are in everyday situations and moments re-think might be enough adjustment required. Virtually any successful person you can think of will be blessed or have been blessed with the power of positive thought. The simple message is to accept the challenge to take those irrational, negative, foreboding thoughts and replace them with empowering, optimistic, upbeat messages to fuel your positive side.