Being positive is not about being positive all the time. There is no body in this world who is positive 24×7. Negativity can creep into the minds of even the most motivated and positive people.
Then, how does one manage or control the negative selftalk or negative thoughts and maintain positivity.
Here are a few things that I have tried for myself and I can vouch that these work 100% of the times.
- When one negative thought arises in your mind, think about 3 positive thoughts. When you start doing that, you will realize that there is more positive aspects to yourself, others and the world than the one negative thing that you thinking about.
- Use the rubber band trick. It’s simple. Wear a rubber band on your wrist. If you are chronic worrier, and you think negative thoughts come to your mind in quick succession, when that happens, pull the rubber band and release it. The pinch that you experience is enough to stop the train of negative thought. This trick can be used to get rid of almost any bad habit that you wish to let go off. Requires a lot of discipline though.
- To think of a long term solution, maintain a Book of gratitude. Write each morning, a list of 3 things that you are grateful for in your life. It can include the simplest of things and events that you are proud of – be it how you could buy a bike with your own earnings at 23, how you helped your friend with a subject, or how offering to pay your domestic helps medical expenses gave your immense satisfaction. When you are in gratitude, you are positive. When you start noting down things that you are grateful for on a daily basis, you will realize that you have a long list of things that you are grateful for.
- Always stay in action. Don’t give yourself time to brood and worry. Set a goal, create a plan and start grinding. Crush your goals. Celebrate small milestones, that will create a positive mindset. Set yourself up for success. You need to know that when you set your mind onto something, you can get it done.
Mentally strong people control their self-talk and thoughts. They understand that thoughts dictate actions. Allowing self-doubt or negativity leads to poor or no action and so it leads to no results in life. Strong people replace negativity with mantras like “I got this’ or ‘I can do this’.
About Author
Sandhya Reddy is a PCC Accredited Executive Coach and Leadership coach based in Bangalore, India. She is the Founder and Principal Coach at Chapter Two Coaching, a coaching consultancy that specializes in leadership development. She is a Certified Hogan Assessor and Coach. She has over 750+ hours of experience with coaching senior professionals. She has enabled personal transformation for over 1500+ individuals through coaching interventions, workshops, webinars and mentoring.
Chapter Two helps leaders in middle levels and senior levels engage better with their teams, peers and senior stakeholders. We help teams develop a growth and performance mindset, align better with the organizational culture and values and function more cohesively. We are also passionate about women’s leadership development and have developed a practice around it. We enable leadership development through 1:1 coaching interventions and through a set of curated leadership and personal transformational workshops.