How to maintain a positive attitude

For years, we have heard, read and talked about the importance of maintaining a positive attitude in the face of the difficulties that life presents us. But it is time to renew our way of thinking about it and generate new habits that allow us to achieve what we want.

A well-known truth is that if you let negative thoughts take over or if you allow depression to take over, you will go through life without realizing the good in your life. On the other hand, excessive positive thinking can also distort reality.

Excesses and extremes are not good companions. You must change your thinking habits, your “defense” mechanisms against frustrations and find the key to start your inner engine. All this will allow you to have a fuller life. But how to do it? By following these simple steps that we present below.

1. Identify the cause of your unhappiness

There is always a cause for your frustration, fear, sadness or anger. It’s the first thing you should do. It’s not always easy, but focus on finding the true cause of your frustration, what paralyzes you and prevents you from reaching your goal. Sometimes these are issues that go beyond what you want or can accept.

The result of this step can be pessimism. Don’t be discouraged! This is only the first step to changing your thinking habits. When faced with a difficulty, you can do two things: evade it or counteract it. Avoiding will only prolong your agony, so I recommend that you face it.

2. Set a short but possible goal

Imagine the benefits of achieving your goal. Start by creating very basic and simple habits. For example, if you want to lose weight and eat junk food daily, reduce the frequency to just once a week and order half of what you always eat.

The first few days it will be quite difficult for you to start the changes. After doing it several times, you will feel better about yourself and much more stimulated. That will be the time to set a higher goal to achieve something bigger, something that brings you closer to your goal and increases your demands.

Find what is the most important action when it comes to actually achieving your goal. When you have your action well defined, you will be able to think positively and carry it out with all the enthusiasm possible. This way, you will stay stimulated and see new possible actions. Remember that good will or positive thinking is not effective if you do not act.

3. Identify the good things you have in your life

One of the elements that will help you the most to maintain a positive attitude is to be grateful for the good. It is worth listing everything you consider appropriate: material goods, people, opportunities, experiences, etc.

It is common to focus so much on what we want to change that we rarely stop to see the good around us. This is a shame because most people try to get to the next day, without valuing today and this becomes an endless race.

4. Lighten your emotional load

While you identify the good, you will also find things and people that harm you. It is important that you think about why they are in your life and if they really hurt you, it is best to end it.

Of course this is not simple. Ending long-standing relationships or getting rid of assets that don’t really satisfy you, but that give you a certain status, is not easy. On the contrary, the heavier the emotional burden, the more important the person or thing seems to us. But you will also have more freedom by letting go.

We will achieve a change of habit if, after focusing on what paralyzes us, we are honest with ourselves and set achievable goals. This way we will find the action that leads us to overcome that obstacle and achieve a better life with a positive attitude.

Other recommendations to adopt a more positive attitude

These 11 strategies from Dr. Tchiki Davis (2018) can also help you adopt a more positive attitude:

Ask yourself: “Do I think positively?” Take a positivity test or quiz to see where you stand.Strengthen your memory for positive information by using positive words more often.Work with positive information and with exercises that involve positive words.Strengthen your ability to pay attention to the positive by routinely redirecting your focus from the negative to the positive.Condition yourself to experience random moments of positivity.Think positive, but not too much, and think negative when you need to; Sometimes we need to grieve, think about negative consequences, and use negative emotions to motivate and commit.Practice gratitude (perhaps with a gratitude journal).Savor the good times.Generate positive emotions watching funny videos.Stop minimizing your successes and recognize the efforts you make.Drop the all or nothing thinking. This cognitive distortion is not in line with reality, since very rarely things are “totally good” or “totally bad.”

Have you realized that your life just isn’t what you were looking for and are tired of having a negative perspective? The previous tips will help you improve it. In this way, you will be able to feel happier and have a more pleasant perspective on life, improving your attitude every day.

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