5 Ways to Change Your Negative Mindset
We will all deal with a negative mindset at some point in our lives. It might be a difficult day – for example, you got stuck in traffic, missed an important meeting, and your boss is upset that you are late again. Or it might be a series of negative events like finding out that you must spend money on another unanticipated and expensive home repair right after you found out that your company is not paying bonuses this year. You could then start thinking negative thoughts like you are unlucky or that nothing ever goes your way. External events can get into your head and create a negative mindset. If you let the negative mindset fester and don’t learn to overcome this, you could lead an unhappy life or struggle with depression.
A negative mindset can influence the decisions you make in your personal and professional life. If you want to avoid being overpowered and controlled by negativity, here are five ways you can adjust your mindset to be more positive.
Accept That You Need to Adjust Your Thoughts
We all have dreams and goals that didn’t turn out how we expected. If this happens repeatedly, you may start to wonder what needs to be changed. Many people blame external circumstances. However, that is taking the easy way out.
Instead, you should examine your own thinking as the place to start making the changes. You have little to no control of external events, but you have complete control of your thoughts. If you’re dealing with doubt and fear when it comes to reaching your goals, you should focus on changing your negative thoughts.
Identify Your Negative Thoughts
Every day there are around 65,000 thoughts that go through our minds. Unfortunately, most of these are negative, and most of the time we aren't even aware of them. These automatic negative thoughts will quickly destroy your plans if you let them. To overcome these thoughts, you must become aware of them. Notice when you are thinking negative thoughts and determine how frequently it happens. Pay attention to what triggers these thoughts.
Flip the Switch
As you become more aware of the negative thoughts, you need to find a way to stop them from holding you back. Every time you notice that you are entertaining a negative thought, flip the switch to something more positive. Rather than seeing all your flaws when you look in the mirror, tell yourself that you look good. If you tend to beat yourself up after making a mistake, remind yourself that no one is perfect and think about what you learned from the situation. Often, taking this one positive step in the right direction will be enough to silence the negative thoughts.
Start Small
One of the best ways to change your mindset and make progress towards your objectives is to set small, achievable goals. If your goal is to exercise daily, you can start by setting the goal of completing a 10-minute walk. When you feel you can do more, do it. Achieving your larger goals requires you to take small steps, every day. This will create the momentum that will send you in the right direction and will ultimately lead to positive results.
Get Comfortable with Failure
Changing your mindset will take work, and you are guaranteed to experience failure along the way. Many people stop trying after they fail. This is a sure way to ensure that you will not achieve your goals. Successful people take a different approach, they view failure as an opportunity to learn and try different approaches until they succeed. They bounce back from adversity and don’t let failure stop them.
Changing your mindset doesn’t happen by accident. It is a choice that you need to make for yourself. Following these five simple steps will help you get on the right track to developing a more positive mindset.