Mindset Mondays: Practice Positive Thinking

Negative thoughts can affect your ability to see your success — as well as make you feel bad about yourself and the world around you — and can lead to poor choices. Thankfully, you can turn yourself around by focusing on positive thinking.

• Create a Minimum “To Do” List. Each day, look at your calendar and schedule and see what you need to do for the day to be a success — but just for that one day. It shouldn’t be 12 hours of work either. It should be a realistic depiction of the minimum necessary tasks to experience success.

• Keep a Gratitude Journal. Every evening, write down three things you are thankful for in general and for that day. Then, the next morning, read those three things before you start your day. When you focus on the good in your life, you’re going to feel more successful.

• Meditate Daily. Take time out of your day to mediate. You don’t have to meditate for a long time to see results. Just five minutes a day can make a big difference in your mood and your thoughts. You can also meditate in different ways, such as by walking in nature, lying on the living room floor listening to music — or the typical way most people think of it. But clear your mind so you can reset and start fresh.

• Time Limit Your Negativity. When you allow a negative thought to enter your mind, instead of dismissing it, try stopping and doing something else that makes you feel positive. Five minutes watching babies laugh on YouTube can pay off in numerous ways.

• Practice Changing Your Thoughts. When a negative thought enters your mind, you can practice changing it. If you have a negative thought, think it out, and then turn it around to something positive. With practice, the negative thoughts will resolve themselves.

You don’t have to be overly positive for these tactics to work. If you have trouble turning a negative thought into a positive one, use a neutral thought instead. 

How Positive Thinking Can Change Your Life (Self-Improvement Series)

This is the second in a series of four blog posts on self-improvement as part of "Four Ways to Improve Your Life and Achieve Greater Success as a Resume Writer." Check out yesterday's blog post on "The Power of Goal Setting."

I mentioned in yesterday's post that I've heard of a few resume writers struggling with burnout. Part of that can be attributed to overworking themselves, some of it is from PITA clients, but some of it is just the negativity that creeps up as we work to manage our business, keep our clients happy, and create some work/life balance.

How Positive Thinking Can Change Your Life.

With so many books out there highlighting the power of positive thinking, you would think that this doesn't need to be mentioned. But it does, because positive thinking really does change your life.

How does positive thinking change your life?
1. You become grateful and appreciative for what you have.
2. Others want to be around you, including those that have an affect on your personal success.
3. A positive attitude makes it easier to motivate yourself and achieve your goals.

So you know how a positive attitude can change your life — but knowing it, and doing it, are two different things. Sometimes it is just plain difficult to smile, especially when a client is challenging the strategy on their resume, or you're struggling to finish two resumes before you can call it a day.

So how do you stay positive?

Like goal setting, maintaining a positive attitude is a way of life and a learned behavior. You can't just flip a switch and never have another negative thought or emotion. What you can do is teach yourself to be more positive.  

Here are some steps to take to become more positive and optimistic:

• Every day, list five things that you are grateful for.
• You can teach yourself find the positive side of every situation by stepping back when you feel yourself getting negative, and finding something positive instead.
• Teach yourself to recognize negative thoughts and to let go of them and replace them with positive thoughts.
• When you have setbacks, view them as learning experiences and look to the future.
• Walk away from negative people, influences, and situations.
• Express gratitude verbally to those that you are grateful to.

I also recommend Gretchen Rubin's excellent book, "The Happiness Project: Or Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun," or read her blog of the same name.

When you take the steps to become a more positive person, it will become a way of life.  Soon you'll notice that negative thoughts and emotions rarely enter your brain. You'll feel better about your life, your business, your clients (most of them, anyway!) and yourself — and it will show. It will be easier, and more fun, to reach your personal and professional goals.

More than 100 books have been published on the subject of positive thinking, and motivational speakers spread the word daily about the importance of this topic. As you become a more positive person, you will draw into your life positive people and opportunities because "like attracts like."

Be sure to check out tomorrow's third post in this week's four-part series on self-improvement: "If You Want to Keep Earning, You Need to Keep Learning!"