It reminds me of a story I once heard
about a man who decided he was going to learn to parachute from a plane to help
him in his fear of facing negative decisions within his life. His problem was that in ALL situations
he only considered the negative point of view.
The story went something like this: After
receiving his ground instructions the man was flown in the aircraft to his jump
altitude. There he received his final
instructions prior to his departure from the plane.
His instructor said: “After you jump,
count to three and pull the rip cord. In
the unlikely event that the chute doesn’t open, pull the cord to your emergency
chute. The school truck will be on the
ground to return you to our facility.”
After taking one last deep breathe for
moral support, the man jumped from the plane.
As he fell toward the ground, he counted to three, pulled his rip cord,
and --- nothing happened! He then
grabbed the cord to his emergency chute and yanked on it --- nothing happened!
As he continued to fall, he looked toward
the ground, and said: “That school truck
is probably not there waiting for me either!”
What a case of negative thinking! However, do you ever find yourself getting
stuck in negative thought patterns and expecting the worst possible outcome in
every situation? It’s a common mind-set
that proves difficult to change when you finally decide you’ve had enough. Unfortunately, negative thoughts tend to
breed and multiply on their own – even when you’re not consciously trying to
think negatively.
The good news is that turning a negative
outlook into a positive one just takes a bit of patience and persistence until
the positive thoughts begin to take over.
Below you’ll find three simple steps to begin forming positive
expectations on a daily basis:
1) Develop self-awareness to
recognize negative expectations.
One problem with negative thoughts is that they often form below your
conscious level of awareness, and you get so used to them being in your head
that you hardly notice them anymore. To
turn the tide of negativity, you’ll have to develop a stronger level of
self-awareness. One good way to start is
by performing self-checks several times a day.
Pay attention first to how you feel.
If you’re feeling positive and productive, most likely you’ve been
thinking positive thoughts.
However, if you notice that you’re feeling irritable, pessimistic or stressed, you’re probably focusing more on negative thoughts. When that happens:
2) Challenge and change the negative
thoughts. Believe it or not,
it’s fairly easy to challenge and change negative thoughts with a little
willpower and concentration. For
example, if you find yourself feeling doubtful about your ability to finish
your work on time, you might engage in a bit of self-talk like this: “Okay, so I’m feeling a bit worried right
now, but really everything is okay. I’m
strong, I’m smart and I’m capable of finishing my work on time. I’ll do my best and everything will work out
fine.” Even though nothing has changed
in your outer circumstances, this type of self-talk can get you thinking and
feeling more positive.
3) At the same time, while you’re changing
negative thoughts to positive, work daily on developing a general
positive expectation habit. Each
day when you wake up, affirm confidently, “Today is going to be a great
day! Everything will go my way and I’ll
enjoy plenty of lucrative opportunities and fun!”
When you encounter obstacles or problems,
see them as opportunities to learn, grow and strengthen yourself. Perception is 99% of the game! If you simply work on shifting the way you
look at the experiences of your life, you can easily conquer your negative
thought habits.
The more you focus on changing your
perspective to emphasize the positive, you’ll empower yourself to create better
circumstances in your life. Before you
know it, you’ll be enjoying better and more frequent opportunities and
attracting other likeminded, successful people to connect with.
Just keep in mind that while doing this
life adjustment, you will face your greatest challenges from within! YOU will be, as always, your own worst
enemy because we’re only human!
QUOTE TO CONSIDER
"Never think you can't
if you haven't tried!"
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