When your attitude and outlook are positive, you feel good about your life. A poor attitude leads to poor results and misery. You might think that your attitude is dependent on the conditions in your life. That’s true if you permit it. You also have the choice to take responsibility for your attitude.
Control your focus, and your attitude will shift.
This isn’t easy to do when life is beating you up, but you can still say positive in the worst of conditions. The more positive your attitude, the better you’ll be able to enjoy your life and make positive changes.
Shape your life the way you like by managing your attitude:
1. Spend time with others that have a positive attitude. It’s difficult to have an attitude that’s significantly better than that of the average person in your social circle. Seek out those with a positive perspective on life. Think about removing the people from your life with the worst attitude.
2. Live life with a light touch. It’s easy to be too serious and stern with life. Learn to laugh at yourself and at life in general. The challenges in life will be easier to deal with, and you’ll enjoy each moment more.
3. Have gratitude. You have lots of things in your life to be happy and optimistic about. Remind yourself of your blessings each day. On your commute to work, list five things that you’re grateful for. Do the same on the way home.
4. Stay focused on solutions when challenges arise. Rather than dwelling on the problem, turn your attention to the possible solutions. You’ll see that the current challenge in your life will be over soon enough. You feel empowered when your attention is on solving the challenges in your life.
5. Smile. Smiling is good for you and everyone else around you. It makes everyone feel better. It’s free. It feels good. And you’re already good at it.
6. Take responsibility for your life and challenges. When you feel like negative things are just randomly happening to you, it can be depressing. But, if you can see that you likely contributed to your issues, and that you also have the power to resolve it, you realize that you have control over your situation.
7. Determine your purpose in life. Not having a purpose keeps your focus on the fires in your life. With a purpose, you have a goal out in front of you to keep yourself focused on something positive in the future.
8. Expect challenges. When you expect everything to go smoothly, you’re going to be disappointed. If you expect a problem or two along the way, your attitude will stay positive when something does go wrong. Just remember to be grateful when things do go well!
9. Maintain positive self-talk. When you say negative things to yourself, your attitude will take a nosedive. If you’re going to communicate with yourself, be positive. If you’re not on your side, who will be?
10. Be curious. Rather than be upset about a problem, be curious: “I wonder what it will take to solve this challenge. I wonder what I can learn from this.” Curiosity has a childlike quality to it. It makes everything feel more like play.
Life seems to treat us in a manner similar to our attitude toward it. Have a positive attitude and good things will happen. A poor attitude has a way of creating negative experiences.
You can control and manage your attitude to enhance your happiness and your results. Rather than allowing your experiences to lead your attitude, allow your attitude to lead your experiences.
