How to Develop a Positive Attitude - How to Maintain a Positive Attitude
Stress Busting Strategies

Written by Dr. Wolf J. Rinke, author of Make It A Winning Life: Success Strategies For Life, Love And Business. Achievement Publishers, Box 350, Clarksville, MD 21029, (800) 828-9653. Reprinted with permission.

For success in all areas of life, attitude is much more important than aptitude. People who cultivate consistently positive attitudes expect great things, work hard for those things, and are likely to achieve them.

In fact, research by psychologist Martin Seligman of the University of Pennsylvania revealed that optimistic people are happier, healthier and more successful than those with a negative outlook on life.

Health -
A new branch of medicine – psychoneuroimmunology - studies the relationship between mental attitude and health. Physicians have found that a positive attitude can result in faster recovery from surgery and burns, more resistance to arthritis and cancer, and improved immune function.

Reason: Brain-produced substances – neuropeptides - transmit chemical messages that direct the immune system. When you think positively, these messages are more emphatic. When you are depressed, they tell your body, Why bother?

Success -
When you think positively about yourself, you work harder at what you want to do - and give up less easily. You make a better impression on others, which encourages them to help you. When you think more positively about your colleagues, employees, spouse and children, you build stronger and more productive relationships - leading to greater success at work and at home.

Lesson: If you think you would be happier with your life if you were more successful, you have things backward.

Developing A Positive Attitude -
A positive attitude does not pop into your mind by itself. How you feel is a decision you make every day. If you don’t automatically feel upbeat, look around and find something to feel good about. Aim: Start out each day in a positive way.

• Use a clock radio that plays music that is soft and pleasant to wake up to. Don’t use a loud alarm clock.
  
  
• Allow yourself enough time to prepare for the day’s activities at a civilized pace. Don’t get up at the last possible moment.
  
  
• Think about the positive things you expect to accomplish today. Don’t listen to news of the world’s problems or worry about your own problems while you are dressing.
  
  
• Eat a healthy breakfast. Don’t drug yourself with coffee or cigarettes.
  
  
• Discuss your plans for the day with your partner. Don’t bury your face in the newspaper.
  
  
• Each day, find some positive feature about your partner and compliment him/her on it.
  
  
• As you go about your day’s activities, always expect the best.

Obstacles -
The common obstacles to developing a positive attitude are the types of negative thinking that distort your evaluation of situations.

Exaggerating - Overestimating problems and underestimating abilities.

Example: I’m always late for meetings.

Replace with: I make it to most meetings on time.

 

Overgeneralizing -Taking an isolated event and assuming it always happens.

Example: I’m stupid.

Replace with: This time I made a wrong turn, but I usually do get where I’m going easily.

 

Personalizing -Thinking everything revolves around you.

Example: Everyone noticed that I wore the same dress twice.

Replace with: I like this outfit, and I am properly dressed for the occasion.

 

Either/or thinking - Seeing things as mutually exclusive, even when they’re not.

Example: Either I get the promotion or I’m a failure.

Replace with: My performance has been exceptional, and I have a good chance of getting promoted. If I don’t get it this time, there will be other opportunities.

 

Jumping to conclusions - Drawing conclusions from limited information.

Example: I wasn’t assigned the project because I wasn’t at my desk when my manager called.

Replace with: I’ll ask my manager if there’s a way I can help out with the assignment

 

Ignoring the positive -Focusing on one negative and forgetting about all the positives.

Example: I did not make my sales quota last month.

Replace with: I hit my sales goals for 11 of 12 months, and I will hit it again.

Setting Yourself Up For Success -
Nothing enhances a positive attitude more than success, so regard success as the normal state of affairs - and the lack of success as the exception.

Avoid perfectionism - Very few things are perfect in this world, so try to recognize that falling short of perfection is not failure.

Helpful approach - Remember that there is no such thing as failure - only outcomes. If your efforts produce an outcome that is less successful that you had hoped, don’t say, I’m a failure. Instead, say, I’ll change what I did wrong and next time I’ll do better.

Focus on the future - You can’t change the past, but if you decide where you want to go in the future, you will give yourself the best chance of getting there. Always aim high, and you too will make it a winning life.

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