Published: 12/08/2022
A positive mental attitude is indispensable to success and achievement. You can foster and maintain a positive mental attitude by focusing on doing what lies clearly at hand, by taking the step that appears immediately in front of you. That will automatically lead to the next step, and the next , and so on, and eventually you will find yourself at your goal.
But there is much more to a positive mental attitude than this. You can have a positive attitude that disappears in the face of adversity, or you can have an attitude that is strong that no matter what happens to you, you remain positive, cheerful, and optimistic.
Your degree of self-confidence is what determines how positive your attitude really is, and self-confidence is based on your belief in yourself and your ability. It is based on faith, or knowing that things are going to work out well in the long run, no matter how distressing they appear to be in the short run.
Right from the beginning, you can choose to be positive and constructive in dealing with adversity. You can sit down and think through the situation and then begin to deal with it one oil barrel at a time.
Of course, this is not easy as it sounds. We all are faced with four obstacles that tend to get in the way of our maintaining a positive mental attitude. These obstacles are fear, worry, anger, and doubt.
When things are not working out the way we had expected, our immediate response is to become fearful and uneasy. We are afraid we will lose our money, waste our effort, or forfeit our emotional or physical investment in what we have done. If we are not careful, we start thinking of our potential losses rather than focusing on our potential gain.
Fear triggers worry, and we begin to use our power of imagination to create all sorts of negative images that causes us unhappiness and insomnia(sleep disorder/ difficulty) and make us unable to perform effectively.
Fear and worry create anger, or what has been called the ‘victim complex’. instead of moving constantly forward in the direction of our dreams, we begin to react and respond and to blame other people and other situations for our problems.
Surrounding these negative emotions is the mental quality of doubt. Doubt is a fertile breeding ground for the other three negative emotions. Therefore, to eliminate these obstacles to positive thinking, you need to systematically use your mind to get rid of the weakening emotion of doubt.
How do you do this? It is simple- The only real antidote to fear, worry, anger, and doubt is positive action toward the achievement of some worthwhile ideal.
Psychologists tell us that the key to dealing effectively with life is what they call ‘cognitive control’. The cognitive control method is based on the assumption that you can think about and concentrate on only one thing at a time, either positive or negative. Successful people are no different from you and me. They have one outstanding characteristic; They consciously choose to think about what they want, rather than what they don’t want. And as a result they are continuously taking action toward their goals, rather than spending their time thinking and worrying about the inevitable challenges and difficulties that face them everyday.
If you visualize a positive outcome, if you think about it and see it and feel it and sense it in every respect, you begin to exert a powerful magnetic force that brings the desired goal or outcome into reality. In effect, you control your life and your destiny through the vivid mental images you hold in your mind on a continuous basis.
You are the architect of your personality and character. Your goal, your desire, is to be successful, happy, and prosperous as you possibly can in every aspect of your life. Therefore, the systematic development of a positive mental attitude is something you need to work on every hour.
There are six (6) things you can do to assure that your attitude is the very best it can be under all circumstances.
1. Whatever challenges you face, focus on the future rather than on the past. Instead of worrying about who did what and who is to blame, focus on where you want to be and what you want to do. Get a clear mental image of your ideal future, and then take whatever action you can to begin moving in that direction.
2. Whenever you are faced with a difficulty, focus on the solution rather than on the problem. Think and talk about the ideal solution to the obstacle or setback, rather than wasting time rehashing and reflecting on the problem. Solutions are inherently positive, whereas problems are inherently negative. The instant you begin thinking in terms of solutions, you become more positive and constructive.
3. Assume that something good is hidden within each difficulty or challenge.
4. Assume that whatever situation you are facing at the moment is exactly the right situation you need to ultimately be successful. This situation has been sent to you to help you learn something, to help you become better, to help you to expand and grow.
5. In every challenge, look for a valuable lesson. Assume that every setback contains a lesson that is essential for you to learn.
6. Whenever you have a goal that is unachieved, a difficulty that is unresolved, or a problem that is blocking you from getting where you want to go, sit down with a pen and paper and make a list of every thing you could possibly do to resolve the situation.
A positive mental attitude is indispensable to your success. [Excerpt from Dream Big Dreams; Brian Tracy & Andrew Wood]
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