What Is Positive Thinking?
It’s in these five areas of your life, that positive thinking will allow you to grow towards your full potential.
What Is Positive Thinking?
Positive thinking will let you do everything. At least, more than negative thinking will. You see, positive thinking will help you use your abilities. And honestly, that’s just all you need.
It will change your self-image, will get you the best results, and will allow you to make the best choices in your life. But what is positive thinking?
As we grow up, we, strangely enough, are faster acquainted with negative thinking than we are with positive thinking. On average, an American child gets negative feedback eight times more often than positive feedback. By the time the kid is 18 years of age, he or she’s been told 148,000 times ‘no’ or ‘you can’t do it’, which both aren’t parts of positive thinking.
The numerous times I’ve heard parents tell their spouses they can’t touch anything while shopping for groceries. Recently I even heard a mother yelling at her two-year-old why the heck he wasn’t shut up because he was driving him crazy.
It’s somehow in our culture; the comparisons we make with others, and the continuous attention to negative news in the media influence us much more than we like to admit, and the way we talk to ourselves and others has a big impact if we have a positive mindset or not.
It’s your terminology, the way you use our language that shows yourself and others how you think. Studies show that over 90 percent of the daily information we take in, is of a negative nature.
You might know negative thinking people from your own environment.
From the obvious person who keeps on complaining about what’s wrong and that everything is going to turn out for the worst (even the weather).
Focus
Perhaps you’re not entirely satisfied with what you already have, and you wish to acquire more in your life, whether business or career-wise, financially, health-wise, in your relationships, or in your personal life.It’s this focus that brings gratitude, which as a result brings more joy and happiness into life than to focus on what you don’t have.
A negative mindset and negative thinking would not be open to what is already there and therefore would not find it easier to start new things and accomplish any objectives.
To have a positive mindset means to focus on what is there, instead of focusing on what isn’t there. Now, this may sound quite simplistic, but let me clarify what I mean by this. If you take a look around in your life for what you have right now – a place you can call ‘home’, some money in the bank, and material that allows you to do what you do and to do what you like.
When I started to improve my life consciously, I was focusing on everything: meaning I was trying to do it all at once. Now, for some, this may work, but what I realized was that this was a clear-cut case of everything BUT focus.
My mind was so shattered that I wasn’t even able to see what already was there. My ‘main focus’ (if we could speak of that) was to do as much as possible in the shortest time possible.
This meant for me, that I wasn’t grateful for what I already had in my life, but that I was only looking for the things that I wasn’t having.
In short, there wasn’t much positive to focus on.
Later I realized that I should be at least thankful for the things that were already in my life. Especially when things turned out for the worse (concerning my eyesight) I realized that I never focused on how much it meant to me to actually see the world.
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From that moment on, not only was my focus more on positive things (my health, my home, and being able to eat quality food to name but a few), but I also realized that if I put my focus on something that needs my priority, I will become and stay most motivated to start and finish that project.
Map of the world
It has been said that different people witnessing the same event or situation remember that event or situation differently. You could ask yourself the question “Does this mean that the event is false or that the viewers or people in the situation have it wrong?”Since it is not the situation itself that changes, it must be the people in the situation that have a certain perception of the event and therefore have an opinion or a feeling about it.
For example, two children go out with their parents to an amusement park; one of them enjoys the Mary-go-round so much, but the other starts to cry when sitting on the mechanical horse.
NLP says that each and every single person has a so-called map of the world.
This means that everybody, including you, sees the world with his or her own eyes, or better said, through their own filters. Our brain receives more than 4 billion bits of information every second and it needs to decide or select what is most important and what is not.
So, we’ve established that our mind works like a filter, picking out those pieces of information that are important to us at any particular time.
This also happens for bigger events, like the two children in the previous example. One of the children was focusing on something joyful, but the other one wasn’t. This also works for positive thinking.
If you focus on your thoughts consciously, you take control of your thoughts and you can – if necessary – redirect them towards a more positive mindset.
By focusing on what’s good in your life, and not what’s missing or what doesn’t work, you change your point of view, and thus the way your results.
Opportunity
Positive thinking means seeing opportunities where negative thinking means looking at what is missing or what is wrong. It’s sometimes that the whole picture isn’t complete; some of the pieces of the puzzle are missing, but you know what the picture is going to look like.Of course, this doesn’t mean that positive thinking is all only about seeing the nice and happy things in life and not focusing on the potential dangers or missing.
It’s not just keeping your head up high, looking at the sky, and not seeing the lumps in the road ahead. It’s walking the road with a clear view of where you’re going, being able to enjoy the way as you go, anticipating the holes in the road, and deciding to keep on going nevertheless.
And so a lot of people don’t get goals and/or change their mindset. They stay open to getting influenced by negative information and therefore start thinking negatively about themselves and others around them.
Richness
Though the richness of the past years increased in virtually every country on the planet, it didn’t change the way we perceive ourselves and the way we think of ourselves. Though there is more awareness that negative thinking has a very big impact on the way of living, it’s only since a decade or so that people are starting to become aware of their thinking patterns and their consequences.Quantum physics today allows you to choose your own reality. This means that if you are negatively oriented, you’ll most likely attract more negativity into your life. And because things are always exactly what you make of them, it’s just a matter of choice to live in the world you want to live.
When I understood this principle, I exaggeratedly started to change my thinking patterns. I switched off the television, stopped reading newspapers and started to look for positive news.
Today, I still don’t watch TV, and I can choose what I want to put my attention to. I only allow positive thoughts and feelings into my mind, so that I’m laying the foundation for a positive future.
Positive thinking is an absolutely essential tool and has to be seen as one, in order to achieve more and bigger and better results. It is unconditionally linked to success, via goal setting, wealth, good health and persistence.
Positive thinking is the basis of the future of a better world, and only today's generation that starts thinking more positively about themselves and the world they live in is able to take what we have into the next era.
The power of positive thinking
Self-esteem
Your level of self-esteem is the basis of whether or not you are successful. The more you like yourself the more successful you will become, because you will be able to motivate yourself more, focus on and reward yourself for the successes you achieve, and the more you will keep looking for improvement.It’s everything that you do that makes you feel more positive about yourself and your life, builds your self-esteem, and improves your level of mental fitness.
What this means, is that every time you do something with success (e.g. you’ve achieved one of your goals), it strengthens your self-esteem and your confidence. Therefore you could say: "Success builds on the success"
And this is one of the biggest secrets to success.
So, your self-esteem is absolutely necessary if you want to become successful. The way you see yourself determines how your thoughts flow. In other words, your self-esteem is connected to the beliefs you hold about yourself, and the world.
Self-image
However, positive thinking will not work for an individual who has a negative self-image. It is absolutely essential that you change your self-image from a negative one to a positive one. A negative self-image creates a lack of willingness to stop non-supporting habits like smoking, drinking, taking drugs or hanging out with the wrong kind of people.You’ll keep on thinking ‘Why would I do it anyway? I’m not worth it’ or ‘People don’t like me if I do my own thing’ (among many other thoughts).
However, if you were in high school, you know now that at that time pretty much everybody was insecure about him/herself. And the result was that classes were divided up into two groups: the cool ones, and the geeky ones.
Now I have to say, in high school, I was in both (not at the same time), and the biggest difference was, that there wasn’t any difference! It doesn’t matter in which group you are, we all feel insecure about ourselves, no matter cool or geeky! It’s the lack of life’s experience (at least for most of us at that time), that causes us to feel insecure, pick on or make fun of others who are easier targets.
But the bottom line is, that if you feel good about yourself, it doesn’t matter what other people will think about you. The first thing that matters is that you start to feel good about yourself!
Young people also have a tendency to get out of focus more easily. One of the reasons for this could be, because of the large variety of external stimuli, among which the digital and electronic devices, such as computers and the Internet, game consoles and mobile phones.
This doesn’t mean these devices aren’t good, I’m simply stating that external stimuli are bigger than never before in the age we live in right now. A child has to digest more information compared to a child of the same age in the 1980s or 1990s. Staying on focus, therefore, is less easy than it was 20 or 30 years ago.
Self-doubt
Everyone has feelings of self-doubt. Feelings of fear, rejection, inferiority or inadequacy, and guilt all go back to our childhood, in which we formed our beliefs about ourselves. Now it’s not that successful people don’t suffer from these emotions, it’s just that they’ve learned how to deal with them and master them in a constructive way.The majority of the population, however, doesn’t, and that’s why they’re not successful. So practice in your ability to overcome your self-doubt: talk to yourself, say positive and empowering words, and learn new things.
Resonance
Positive thinking leads to positive success, at least more than negative thinking ever could. When you’re using positive thinking on a daily basis, it’s like tuning a piano to get the right C-note; you adjust the string bit by bit, but whenever you are in tune, everything around it that’s on the same level will resonate with it.Did you know that if you put two pianos in the same room, and on one of them you’d hit a C-note, the C-string on the other piano will automatically resonate with it? The same goes for people who are like-minded, goal-oriented, success-focused and positive thinking.
Success
Having a success focus means that you need to have a positive mindset. Have you ever heard or seen someone successful saying continuously ‘I don’t think this will work for me” or “Why is this happening to me all the time?”Successful people and not successful people differ in just a few minor things since they both use a system to get to their successes or failures. One of the minor differences successful people do, say and think, is that they remain goal-oriented, focused, determined, and positive.
Now, this doesn’t mean that successful people never encounter failure or obstructions, but they choose not to be taken down by them and keep on going until they’ve reached their goal.
Foundation of Success
It is a positive self-image and positive thinking that are the origin, the foundation of any successful person. Mahatma Gandhi once said the following:“Your beliefs become your thoughts. Your thoughts become your words. Your words become your actions. Your actions become your habits. Your habits become your values. Your values become your destiny.”
Even though his words were placed in a different time and a different context, what he said was absolutely true. It’s what you think of yourself and how you think that in the end will manifest as the outcome of your life. If you want to have a positive, healthy, and successful life, think positive, healthy and successful thoughts.
Stephen R. Covey, author of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People wrote that there are 7 habitual actions successful people do in order to be successful, and those seven habits are:
to be positive
to begin with the end in mind
to put first things first
to think win-win
to seek first to understand,
then to be understood
to synergize
to practice what you know
In short, the habits, Stephen R. Covey mentions are to have a positive attitude, use visualization techniques, have good time management, think win-win, use beneficial communication skills, synergize, and practice.
Stress-release
Positive thinking assists with pressure administration and can enhance your well-being. It's the way you see most circumstances throughout your life as either positive or negative which affect your personality, your wellbeing, and your outcomes.In reality, a few examinations demonstrate that personality traits - optimism and pessimism - can influence numerous parts of your well-being and prosperity. Positive thinking additionally is a key piece of powerful stress management.
If you feel good, you decrease stress, as well as build up more resistance against (sudden) stress. The opposite is also true: if you feel vulnerable and crappy, you’re far more open to getting sucked up in stressful situations, overwhelming you, and drowning the little energy you had left in you.
Positivity is like medicine for your brain and your body. If you decide to mentally feel good, your body will follow, build up stress resistance, and enable your energy. The question “Is the glass half empty or half full?” is one of the best examples to find out whether or not you have a positive mindset.
Health
It is known that you can talk yourself into sickness, but logically, you can also think and talk your way to better health. Now, this may sound strange, but I do believe that if you have bad health, having a positive mindset, thinking positively, and visualizing a healthy, strong body will actually help you in getting better, healing faster or decreasing the level of sickness in the body.Positive thinking strengthens the body. It is scientifically measured that a positive self-image, positive thinking, and positive self-talk enable the body to heal faster and build up more resistance against germs and bacteria trying to influence the body.
Relationships
Whether you’re aiming for a more intimate relationship with your partner, or better friendships with your colleagues, having the right attitude is the key to successful relationships. Since it’s no fun at all to be in the presence of someone who keeps on complaining about all he or she can find, the opposite is also true.If you talk positively about yourself, about what you do, and about what’s happening in your world, others will be attracted to your positivity.
It’s like you become a magnet for them because all people are longing for positivity in essence.
If you think about the air you use up to say or do something, you could conclude that it takes the same amount of air and energy to say or do something nice and positive than to do something that’s not nice or even plain negative. Relationships, no matter which kind, are all built on several pillars.
It’s the couples that keep on saying nice, loving and positive things to each other over the period of their relationship that keeps them together.
Positivity is part of the glue that strengthens relationships with your partner, friend, family, colleagues, and even your boss.
Business
What would you think is the best choice if you want your boss or your co-workers to have a good relationship with you: you keep complaining and continuously say negative things about your work or your co-workers to your boss, or you give positive, constructing and challenging remarks.The most successful people in companies that climb the ladder to the top of the company are the ones that have a positive self-image, a positive attitude and are willing to do what’s necessary. They are the ones that set goals for themselves; to be the best, to grow in their personal as well as their professional lives.
Finance
How do you think about money? Do you manage to get around or do you live in total wealth? How do you talk about money? When you speak the words, any words, it’s like you materialize what you’re thinking. So if you say you don’t have any money, then you put your focus, your energy, and your beliefs on the lack of having money. Having a positive picture or feeling of money will change your attitude towards it.The more you talk positively and think beneficial about money, the more you consciously and subconsciously let the world know that you are happy to receive it.
It’s like having to make the choice to give someone a financial present to one of two people. One person isn’t happy about it, complains that it’s not big or high enough, but will take it anyway since the bills are stacking anyway.
The other person is so happy and thankful that you’re willing to give him or her a present, no matter how big or small. The question is, who would you rather give the present to?
If you change the way you think about money, your career, your relationships, your health, and your personal life, you change the five main topics in your life. To think differently, more positive, more enthusiastic, more opportunity looking instead of problem cooking, you start preparing your life for bigger and more successes.
Whatever it is that you want, think positively about it. You have the power to control your own thoughts. Nobody else will or can do that for you. Take that power that lies within yourself and encourages yourself to start focusing on more positive things.
Your mind filters more than three billion bits of information per second and it needs to distinguish what is important and what is not. However, the way we’ve been conditioned to focus and react to negativity and disaster, made our mind focus on those areas more than the positive ones.
Fortunately, you have the power to change the way you think, even if your non-supporting beliefs or habits are there your entire life.
It’s what’s in your mind that makes the difference. Change your mind, change your world. Whatever your belief is towards anything, whether positive or negative, it will logically influence the outcome of your life.
How you think of yourself, your abilities, your friends, your present, your future, your world or your life, will determine the quality, the quantity, and the size of your successes.