How To Have More Positive Thinking In 5 Easy Steps

 

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(This article was originally published several years ago. I thought it would be appropriate to update it and republish it here. Hope you enjoy.)

Millions of people spend time every day searching for ways to succeed.

They want to improve their lives, get better jobs, lose weight, get healthier, increase their finances or pursue their dreams.

But you can’t set life-changing goals and realistically expect to attain them if you don’t first change the way you think.

Not only that, but the thoughts you create need to encourage and reinforce an atmosphere of positivity to form a supportive and nurturing environment in which you can flourish.

Any success you ever hope to achieve, all starts with your mind; the way you CHOOSE to regard your circumstances (yes, it is a choice!), the way you perceive yourself, the way you interpret opportunities, and the way you visualize your future all affect your ability to accomplish whatever it is that you set out to do. It’s very simple – if you don’t change your thinking, you can’t change your life.

To succeed, you must be willing to replace the thoughts, feelings, and ideas that are poisoning your system, hindering your progress and clogging the channels of your success with ones that serve you better.

In other words, you have to replace your “stinking thinking” and have to overcome overthinking that badly disturb you. You must shed those things which are negative, unproductive, destructive and in conflict with your endeavors to achieve success.

So, how do you accomplish that? You start by gradually replacing those things that are negative and toxic in your life with that which is positive and nurturing.

I know, it sounds simple enough, but it’s not an easy thing to do. However, if you begin the process to make positive changes, even small ones, you’ll soon notice that positive and nurturing things will start to show up in your life.

Here are a few tips to get you started.

 

5 Effective Steps to More Positive Thinking

 

1. Begin each day by exposing yourself to positive thoughts and affirmations. Read them and repeat them to yourself by speaking them out loud. Write a short list of what you’re blessed with or thankful for on that day.

Sounds silly, but from the time your mind becomes active and aware each day, this exercise forces you to first acknowledge the positive in the Universe, and take on the power of that positive energy as you prepare yourself to meet each day’s challenges.

2. Do at least one thing each day that forces you to think or act creatively or in a way that is outside of your norm. If it’s nothing more than taking a different route to work or school or the grocery, change something about your daily routine.

This is a very small way of broadening your thinking and training your senses to accept new and different possibilities.

At the very least it causes you to really “see” and recognize your surroundings, avoid the “daily rut” syndrome, and not take so much for granted.

3. Stop limiting yourself. There are enough obstacles to overcome in working toward success without adding more.

But so often the causes of our failures are really self-inflicted. We can think of a million reasons why we can’t, won’t, shouldn’t.

Try this: look for the ways in which to broaden your capabilities and potential.

Find how you can be better, more knowledgeable, more skilled, more polished, through engaging in new and unfamiliar situations.

4. Restrict your exposure to negative influence. These days there is so much negativity in our daily living environments. Insulate yourself from that negativity by surrounding yourself with more positive messages that will help you to win a positive attitude.

Stop constantly watching the evening news and reading the daily newspaper. They continually bombard us with negative information without balanced exposure to good and positive news.

And before you roll your eyes and sigh, making some remark about my being a “Pollyanna”, I’m not suggesting that you “plug your ears and stick your head in the sand”.

What I am suggesting is that the “what bleeds, leads” view of the world from today’s media is not the complete picture.

While the world is filled with negative people and events at any given moment, it’s also filled with a great deal more positive things than the media ever exposes us to.

And ceaselessly taking in and taking on that negativity changes who you are on a daily basis. You have to be willing to “tune in” to a different message.

This also applies to the people you choose to be around or allow to be around you. If your friends and associates tend to be negative people or attract negative influence, find new friends and associates.

It may sound insensitive, but it’s absolutely true that negative and positive cannot coexist. They will either always be at odds, or one eventually takes over the influence of the other.

You cannot expect to attract good and positive and wonderful things and be ensconced in the bad, negative, and life-draining elements.

If the source of negativity is within your familial relationships, find ways to distance yourself from their influence.

5. Feed your mind. Be open to new ideas and information. Don’t allow yourself to hold on so tightly to the ideas and thoughts you now possess that you’re not flexible enough to change them when you receive new or improved information.

Always be eager and willing to learn new things, so that you are continually expanding your depth of knowledge and experience to put new ideas and strategies to work.

Your mind needs to be fed and nurtured just like any other living thing. It requires a fertile environment, one that promotes growth and development.

You can’t reach for the stars if you’re constantly being occupied with the mud and stones and dirt on the ground.

Freshen your thinking, renew your perspective, grab hold of new and different opportunities with enthusiasm and determination. That’s the way to achieve unimaginable success.

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