Simple Ways to Train Your Brain for Positivity

From the Navy Seals, to cutting edge organizations, to the kid next door. Everyone is beginning to realize the power of positivity and how to harness it for their own use. The good news – it’s available to everyone. With continued practice your positivity attitude will grow to encompass your personal and professional life.

Many now realize our thoughts control our lives. Our internal dialogue is the single most powerful source of our moods, quality of life, relationships, health and wealth. Recent studies show the average person has between 50,000-70,000 thoughts per day. These same studies show that between 80-98% of these thoughts are negative.

I’d say it’s time to do some house-cleaning and change our ways!

While it’s popular today to have a 3,5, or 13 step program (they need to be a prime number for some reason), in reality it doesn’t need to work that way. These are just guidelines. Find a program or methodology that works for you. Then continue using it and watch the magic start to happen. Trust your heart/gut and go with what works for you – pick and choose various ideas until you find a mixture that helps you improve. It’s more important to do something repeatedly than follow a certain number of steps intermittently.

Here’s a few ideas that are universal to all of the various programs out there.

You are Job 1
Take care of yourself. Be your own best friend and cut yourself some slack. Give yourself a well deserved “pat on the back” for doing a great job. If your gas tank is always on Empty, you don’t have enough energy, love, and smiles for those you meet throughout the day. Begin to realize your greatness, your innate abilities and gifts, and take time during the day to recharge. Keep your tank of goodwill and self-love on Full. Be aware of those you hang around with and if they aren’t helping you take care of yourself then it’s time to move on and leave them in the dust.

Part of Job 1 is to develop and attitude of gratitude. Be thankful and appreciative of all the good that happens in your life. This reinforces your new positive thoughts and helps keep your tank on Full. Many successful people (Oprah, Richard Branson, etc) have gratitude journals to track all the great things that happen during their day. What you focus on expands. Before long it becomes automatic and all you’ll see are the positive things happening throughout your day.

Have a Vision
What do you want to create? What’s your why? What is your current mission? When you have a strong and important vision it makes life very easy and simple. When presented with a choice, take a moment to check in with yourself – your mind and heart. If it seems logical and feels correct in supporting your vision, then do it. If not, kindly say “no thanks” and move on. You don’t have to fret over past decisions or wonder if you’re missing out on a once-in-a-lifetime possibility. If it’s for your best interest you’ll get another opportunity. No worries.

Develop Your Lateral Thinking Skills
There a an incredible number of ways to solve a problem. Maybe infinite. Too many people quit after the first one or two ideas, decide it’s impossible, and move on. These are not the people you want leading your projects or on your team. Begin to find new connections – how is this (whatever this is) like a flower? What does it have in common with a cloud? How would it function in a weightless environment? Play around and have fun creating new connections/solutions. There is always a way. Or two.

When you develop this attitude you will always find a solution. Again, use your logical mind and have fun in developing new possibilities and potential solutions. Take the next logical step. If it works – GREAT. If not, learn from that experience and move forward with a new potential solution. The only way to fail is to quit.

Be Worthy
Expect your life to work and accept all the good things that come your way. When you have an attitude of worthiness, which is closely tied to Job 1, you are positive because you believe/know that goodness is a part of life. We’re all creators and constantly creating our lives based on our continual thoughts/feelings we tell ourselves throughout the day. When you’re worthy, your internal dialogue shifts to one of expecting good things to happen and graciously giving thanks for the support in your vision. The opposite of this is telling a story to yourself about your inadequacies and therefore not expecting or accepting any good that comes your way. It’s all up to you. Choose greatness.