The Power of Negative Thinking and How to Overcome It

Negative thinking appears to be more prevalent than positive thinking. It seems that with most people, positive thinking requires some effort, whereas, negative thinking comes easily and often uninvited. This has much to do with education and the environment one has been living in.

If you have been brought up in a happy and positive atmosphere, there is more probability that it will be easier for you to think positively. However, If you have been brought up under poor or difficult situations, you will more probably be attracted to negative thinking.

You view the world through your predominant mental attitude. If your thoughts are positive, that is fine, but if they are negative, your life and circumstances would probably mirror these thoughts.

If you believe that you are going to fail, you will unconsciously sabotage every opportunity to succeed. If you are afraid of meeting new people or having close relationships, you will do everything to avoid people and relationships, and then complain that you are lonely and nobody loves you.

The power of negative thinking in action

• Do you often think about difficulties, failure and disasters?
• Do you keep thinking about the negative news see and hear on the TV, or read in the newspapers?
• Do you see yourself stuck and unable to improve your life or your health?
• Do you frequently think that you do not deserve happiness or money, or that it is too difficult to get them?

If you do, then you will close your mind, see no opportunities, and behave and react in such ways, as to repel people and opportunities.

The mind often, doesn't judge or examine thoughts and opinions before accepting them. If what it hears, sees and reads is always negative, it accepts this as a standard.

The media constantly bombards the mind with a lot of information about disasters, catastrophes, wars and other unhappy events. This information sinks into the subconscious mind, and then, manifests as your habitual manner of thinking. By occupying the mind with depressing and pessimistic thoughts you radiate negative energy into the surrounding world, and therefore, create and recreate more negativity, failures and disasters.

The mind is neutral energy. The way you think determines whether the results are positive and beneficial, or negative and harmful. It is the same energy acting in different ways.

The good news is that persistent inner work can change habits of thinking. You must be willing to put energy and time to pursue positive thinking, in order to change your mental attitude.

Simple Tips to Overcome Negative Thinking:

1. Every time you catch yourself thinking a negative thought, replace the thought with a positive one.
2. If you catch yourself visualizing failure, visualize success instead.
3. If you hear yourself using negative words in your conversation, switch to positive words.
4. Instead of saying, "I cannot", say, "I can". Most of the time you can, but choose to say "cannot", due to fear, laziness or lack of self esteem.
5. >Do you repeat negative words and phrases in your mind? Change them to positive ones. Yes, this requires you to be more alert, and to expend some effort, but you want to change negative thinking into positive thinking, don't you?
6. Allow more positive attitude into your life. Have more faith in yourself and expect positive results. Affirmations and visualization can take you a long way in this direction.
7. Decide that from today, from this very moment, you are leaving negative thinking behind you, and starting on the way toward positive thinking and behavior.

How To Create Good Habits| 3 Tips To Self Improvement Through Habit Change | End Bad Habits

You’re perfect, right?

I’m sure you have a life 100% full of GOOD habits.

Yeah……  

Well if you’re anything like me you’re constantly struggling with bad habits.

Poor eating choices, staying up too late, sleeping-in, not going to the gym, etc.

The list goes on.

So how do you replace bad habits with good habits?

How do you create systems in your life so you can slowly but surely point yourself int he right direction?

Well today I cover three tips on how to effortlessly create good habits in your life.

What are these three tips that you can follow? I’ve laid them out for you:

1st – Create An Accountability System 

There are different ways to establish accountability.  One simple method is to have an accountability partner.

An accountability partner is a person that you have to answer to regarding the new habit that you are starting.

Let’s say you want to get get in shape and start to regularly go to the gym.

Having an workout partner – aka accountability partner – that you meet there at 5:30 AM is strong motivation.  Most of us don’t want to let others down, and the way  we’ll feel if we fail to show up is a strong motivator.

This works just as well when you pay a coach – in fact I have a buddy who pays his trainer every month for 8 sessions.  Whether or not he shows – the trainer is paid.  My friend uses this as motivation – knowing he has to show up to the gym as well, he paid good money to be there.

In my case my accountability partner is my 10-year old son. We go to the gym every weekday morning to practice his swimming.

If I fail to wake him up he will not hesitate to question me. I have also given him my word we’ll do this and as a father I have to say this is REALLY strong motivation to crawl out of bed at 5:45 AM (even when our 1 month old baby has kept me up all night).

Leverage the power of an accountability partner.

A quick note on accountability partners – you want it to be a person that you would HATE to let down who can tell you how it is.  Be careful about friends or family members that won’t hold your feet to the fire!

2nd – Clear the Path Of Resistance

Obstacles that prevent you from implementing good habits need to be removed.

When we don’t want to do things – we find excuses not to!

Let’s take the gym example again:

If it’s difficult to find your gym clothes in the morning, there is a HIGH probability that you won’t go.

Clear the path – make achieving the goal (getting to the gym) as easy as possible.

Remove all potential obstacles so NOTHING is stopping you from getting to that goal.

Clearing the path for the gym can go something like this:

•  Set everything up the night before. Lay out what you are going to wear, what you’re going to change into after as well as all the things you will need (towels, toiletries and a change of clothes).
• Pack everything that needs to be packed- this includes your water, some energy bars and other equipment and tools that you may want to have with you.
• Place your car keys in a designated spot where they belong and won’t be moved.
• Fill up your gas tank after work or anytime it falls below 1/2 a tank.

By doing all of these you prevent yourself from feeling rushed and stressed in the morning. You can literally get up and go knowing you have everything you need.

Clearing the path eliminates excuses.

Do this – and you’re much more likely to act when you need to.

3rd – Give Yourself A Immediate Reward…..no matter how small!

The problem with promising oneself a major reward months away from the goal is that it does not sustain the motivation.

It is unlikely for you to keep on with the goal because the reward seems too far away.

Setting up a small reward that you can enjoy that very day provided that you’ve done your assigned task means you’ll be more likely to follow through.

For those who are trying to set up a gym habit, the reward can be something as simple as getting to spend 10 minutes in the hot tub right after the exercise session.

Seriously – this is my personal reward and has pushed me to venture out into the freezing cold winter mornings here in WI knowing that I can lounge un-molested for 15 minutes before starting my day.

Coffee, a donut, steak and egg breakfast, etc……..these small rewards add up and help us change.  Although be careful with too many donuts, that can be a REALLY bad habit in of itself 

Final tip – GET STARTED!

The sooner you apply these action steps, the sooner you will establish that good habit s to improvement in your life.