We are all subjected to stress and challenges in our lives, without exemption. Maintaining a positive mindset can be especially difficult when you’re suddenly thrust into a negative situation, but learning to land on your feet in times of adversity can help you achieve personal growth and success with ease.
“Change the way you look at things and the things you look at change.”
-Dr. Wayne Dyer
Read on to discover 6 most important steps that can help you become a successfully positive person:
1. Learn To Practice Self-Care
When your needs aren’t being met, you’re merely a step away from succumbing to negativity. Aside from the obvious drawbacks of an unhealthy lifestyle, difficult situations are almost guaranteed to seem worse when you’re overly stressed, underfed, and exhausted all of the time! Caring for yourself properly will allow you to maintain a positive attitude when you find yourself in negative situations, and can even help you navigate those situations much more effectively.
Eating a poor diet (or simply not eating at all), getting an inadequate amount of sleep, and skipping regular exercise are all contributing factors in the struggle to maintain a positive outlook. Personal growth can only occur when you’re at your best, and maintaining positivity becomes much easier when you’re feeling the effects of a healthy lifestyle. Really make a focus of getting to bed earlier, ditch harmful fake food for more nutritious options, and maintain a regular and appropriate exercise regimen to really see a difference in your level of positivity.
2. Maintain Personal Control
The only person you can truly control is yourself, and that will never change. Maintaining a positive outlook in the midst of a negative situation requires self-control, a practice that comes in many forms. Learning to control your reactions to negative situations will not only give you the upper hand in social engagements, but it will provide you with a sense of peace and enlightenment that most people will miss out on.
If you’re still struggling to control your negative emotional responses, try to remember that taking things too personally makes maintaining positivity a difficult endeavor. Learn to let things go from time to time and staunchly avoid shouldering the negative effects of constant self-criticism. Simply accept your mistakes, learn from them, and move forward with a fresh start. As the old saying goes, don’t fret the small stuff! And let’s be honest: most of it is small stuff, anyhow.
3. Learn From Everything (Especially Your Own Mistakes)
Taking mistakes and turning them into a set of training exercises for the future is a great tool to avoid succumbing to negativity. Each mistake can be logged as a practice run leading up to the “real thing,” which helps you to avoid feeling defeated when trying to accomplish something difficult. Take control of the way you react to criticism and watch your interactions with others change for the better.
For example, you make a mistake at your job and your boss confronts you about it. Their message is strongly worded, but rather than responding in kind, you choose to focus on the positive aspects of the situation. Replacing a defensive, resentful attitude with a positive, open-minded response will not only dissipate the negativity almost immediately, but also helps to change the vibe of the conversation from critical to constructive. Remembering that you’re unable to completely please everyone is also an invaluable tool in maintaining positivity, as it absolves you of the damaging pressures of people-pleasing behavior.
4. Look For Solutions
Successful people are always looking for solutions to their problems, not wallowing in them. A good way to become less negative is to accept the problem and actively believe that finding a solution is possible. Successful people don’t let their problems take control– they take control of their problems by rising above negativity and creating solutions.
If you’re facing a whale of a problem with no end in sight, don’t try to conquer it in one heroic maneuver. Particularly daunting tasks can always be broken up into smaller, more appetizing chores that won’t leave you feeling as drained. Creating and achieving realistic “mini goals” within larger projects can help you maintain positivity by offering you a sense of accomplishment and put you into a successful mindset.
5. Trust In The Power of The Pause
Picture this: you’re at work. A customer approaches you, angry and accusatory, blaming you for something you have no control over! You could respond angrily in return and face the inevitable backlash (both professionally and personally) but as a positive person, you know better. Instead of reacting emotionally, you take a deep breath and are able to diffuse the situation by staying calm.
Does that sound like a familiar situation? How often does trading blows with another result in more resentment and less productivity? The Pause is a powerful tool that successful people use to maintain a positive attitude in negative situations like these. So much of our interactions with other people involve immediately reacting to their actions, leaving little room to breathe in between sentences or thoughts. Taking a notable pause to readjust your frame of mind, receive and process information, and calculate an appropriate response can save you a ton of time and face when socializing with others.
When presented with a negative situation, take The Pause as an opportunity for an immediate learning experience and actively change the situation by altering your response. This works in so many situations, but is especially effective when encountering a high-emotion, potentially upsetting instance where an inappropriate response can quickly exacerbate things.
6. Find Your Happy Clan
Surrounding yourself with positive, uplifting people is the fastest way to bring your thoughts back to the sunny side! People who are relentlessly positive without a hint of resentment, those who do for others at the drop of a hat, and that one friend who doggedly cheers you on when you’re in the gutter should all be permanent residents in your circle of support. These individuals all exhibit successful habits and are skillful at maintaining a successful mindset, despite what life hands them.
Because maintaining positivity can become difficult in times of hardship, building relationships with people who won’t let you wallow in your misery is extremely important. Remember that positivity isn’t a personality trait– it’s a lifestyle. Look for those who are truly grateful to be given a chance to learn from life and who actively try to learn from their actions. While creating an echo chamber of ideals can be damaging, seeking the presence of like-minded individuals can significantly improve the ease with which you maintain a successful mindset.
