The Power of a Positive Attitude

For those of you that know me, most would agree that I'm a pretty positive person. This week I want to talk about something that I've started to see appear more around me lately, and that's negativity. The road of life, whether personal or professional, can be fraught with bumps and obstacles. At times, these stresses can seem overwhelming to all of us. Everyone, including me, has an occasional bad day, but learning to maintain a positive attitude is the first line of defense against the negative effects of life's challenges.

I think negativity is like a wet blanket. It is not comforting, and it depletes your energy and drive for achievement. A negative attitude wears down your happiness, your motivation and your chances for success. A positive attitude promotes happiness, energy, confidence, and creative inspiration. These effects drive you to take on problems and challenges with a determination to solve them, and you feel motivated to strive for new goals and embark on new endeavors. When you adopt a positive attitude, you exude the confidence to conquer life's obstacles, and this confidence empowers you to achieve your goals. A positive attitude is contagious as it radiates from your demeanor and encourages others around you. When you believe in yourself, then your family members, friends and coworkers are inspired to believe in themselves as well.

If you are a parent, you likely want your children to be all that they wish to be. You have done your best to instill confidence in your children, encouraging them to try out for the school play, tackle the tough math problem, enter the writing contest or even apply to the college of their dreams. We all believe in our children. You must believe in yourself, just as you would believe in your children, to achieve the rewarding results we're all working towards.

Many people have asked me how I manage to stay so positive despite difficulties or problems. Adopting a positive attitude is a matter of learning to acknowledge your abilities and conveying from within that you are more than capable of expanding on your talents. Once you achieve this powerful first step of self-appreciation, your renewed confidence in yourself will start to inspire others. I've found that others are very drawn to positive people, and the same is just as true for a positive person. I don't want to be around those who are always negative, so I try to help by giving them tips that have helped me.

There are several additional simple things that you can do to increase your happiness, confidence and motivation. First, simply choose to be happy. This may seem silly, but the decision to be happy is your choice. There are times when this is easier said than done, but most of the little annoyances that bring you down can be cast aside in your mind. Many of these things are likely insignificant in the grand scheme of your life, and dwelling on them will only detract from your goal of maintaining a positive attitude.

Force yourself to be optimistic by finding a silver lining in every cloud. View challenges and obstacles as opportunities and learning experiences. If you try to visualize the outcome that you desire and mentally accept nothing less, the solution will come into focus more easily. By worrying over the potential outcome that you fear, your negativity will only lead to your mind spinning its wheels in a desperate search for the solution.

Find things to smile about, no matter how trivial some of these things may be. A smile has the power to elevate other people's confidence in you, which boosts your own positive attitude. The client on the other end of the phone can actually detect your smile in your voice while talking on the telephone.

Seek inspiration from others. Read inspiring books, watch an inspiring movie or put an inspiring quote on your computer monitor where you'll see it each day. The achievements of others who began from a similar background as your own can be the most powerful motivators.

A positive attitude will set the stage for thriving in the workplace, effectively dealing with challenges at home and be successful at keeping you healthy. When life throws you a curve ball, you will find yourself surrounded by a support network of those who have benefited from your positive attitude to help you through those hard days. Being a member of a group that strives to be uplifting and successful will offer you a front row seat to witness the ultimate power of a positive attitude.

Traits Successful People Possess

Leaders achieve goals in cooperation with and through the actions of the people in their organization. Effective leaders encourage their employees' personal success because they understand that personal success translates into organizational success. They know that successful people build successful organizations.  

THREE CHARACTERISTICS OF SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE ARE:

1. Goal direction: They know where they stand, where they want to go and have a plan to get there. 

2. Self Motivation: As self starters, they wind their own clock. 

3. Positive mental attitude: Successful people look for ways to complete tasks. They focus on strengths and break self-imposed limitations created by low self esteem.

These traits are interrelated. Strengthen one and you strengthen them all. Success breeds more success through increasing momentum. 

GOAL DIRECTION: 

A much quoted study found that the three percent of the population who created a specific written plan became not only financially independent but out produced those with only general goals by 10 to 100 times.  

Goal directed action leads to success, which arrives when you make that first step towards a goal, not when you reach your goal. Every action step you take towards your goal is a success that brings you closer to the end result you want.  

You can learn the skill of goal direction. Great managers provide goal training and instill goal direction through the planning process. They ensure expected results when they hold themselves and their organization accountable. 

When employees meet their personal goals while helping the company meet its goals, they make great achievements possible. Outstanding leaders build an environment where personal and organizational goals complement each other.  

SELF-MOTIVATION 

Motivation, the sum of two words, motive and action, is the reason a person takes an action. Motivation, movement towards a goal, is goal directed action. 

In the business world, motivation often arises from fear or incentives, both of which are generated by another person and temporary in nature.  

For instance, an employee might be scared by the threat of losing a bonus. Over time people build immunity to fear in that they work just hard enough to get the job done then stop taking action. They don't grow and develop to their full potential. 

Incentives are often part of an employee's compensation plan. For example, a sales incentive plan can effectively increase sales in the short run. However, today's incentive plan often becomes tomorrow's expectation. As the reward becomes expected, the incentive must increase.  

Read:  Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action

Self motivation, however, is internal, permanent and unique to each individual. We motivate ourselves. When we work and live through self-motivation, we take more control over our lives than we could ever imagine having, much like a thoroughbred horse that runs for the thrill of running. The joy and excitement of doing something we love brings great achievement and meaning to our lives.     

POSITIVE MENTAL ATTITUDE 

Which would you rather have as an employee or co-worker, a person with a positive attitude and average skills or a person with high skills and a negative attitude? 

Effective leaders understand that attitude is everything. We heighten success when we look for ways to accomplish our goals rather than make excuses.  

Winners and losers dress alike, eat in the same restaurants, shop in the same stores and work in the same offices. Attitude, behavior and the results they achieve make the difference.  

Winners confidently expect that they can turn any situation to positive advantage. Using positive behaviors; they listen and learn. Their attitude and behavior lead to peak performance.  

The difference between the average and very successful person is quite small. Successful people don't work three times as hard. Effective managers know how to develop the slight edge in people that creates a major increase in performance. They instill an attitude of abundance and positive expectancy in their people. 

HOW TO BUILD SUCCESS TRAITS 

Successful leaders use these four action steps to build success traits in their management team: 

1. Create a positive work environment: People respond to their environment. Build an environment where people want to be and want to do their best. 

 2. Encourage people to stretch for professional development: Most people want to progress and grow. Effective leaders make a point of learning what motivates their employees and then give personal and organizational encouragement.  

 3. Strive for excellence: Help people hold themselves accountable for their personal goals. Hold them accountable for organizational goals.  

4. Share power to create personal commitment to key initiatives: An effective leader understands that sharing power is the most effective way to build personal motivation. When participants take intellectual and emotional ownership of the initiative, they become part of the solution and develop personal commitment to the outcome.  

HOW TO BUILD SELF ESTEEM 

Effective leaders understand that attitude is crucial and that self esteem, the sum of our conditioning from an early age, affects it in many ways. Leaders raise the self esteem of their employees by helping them:  

 Avoid comparison to others.  

When we compare ourselves to others we set ourselves up for disappointment. Someone always has stronger experience or is a more polished speaker. The only relevant measure of personal improvement is to compare our capabilities from yesterday to our capabilities today  

Resist putting yourself down.  

Don't let the person in the mirror become a block. Understand your starting point and set a goal to change. Once you start to actively work towards a goal, you create success not at the end point but during the game. Every day you work towards the culmination of your long range goals.

Improve a discipline in some part of your life.  

Working to fulfill your goals gives you an incentive to do more and do it better each day. When you consistently take the right actions, you feel better about yourself and regularly reach a higher plateau. 

Celebrate small victories. 

Recognize that each step you complete towards your goals is a positive accomplishment that takes you closer to your final objective. You raise your effectiveness every day. 

SUMMARY

The difference between being average and successful is small. A successful person doesn't work harder, he or she works with a distinct goal in mind. For this reason effective leaders strive to strengthen success traits in themselves and their employees. 

Personal and organizational successes go together. When employees meet their personal goals as they help the organization meet its goals, they make great achievements possible.Build an environment where personal and organizational goals complement each other.  

Successful leaders build an organization of committed people who together accomplish great feats. 

They believe in the adage:  

"Self motivation is the power that raises you to any level you seek"

6 Ways To Face Problems

Most people don't talk about problems because of the 'negativity' associated with it. You can't avoid having problems in your life unless you don't have one. Don't look at problems as something that needs to be removed in order to solve them. 


Think of them as an opportunity for you to improve. Simply because, by defeating your problems, you will learn useful lessons.




Here are 6 ways how to treat your problems positively:



1. Never Feel Misfortune With Your Problems


Always remember that the existence of a problem doesn't mean you ought to feel misfortunate or ashamed. True, the problem might be the consequence of your poor judgment in decisions but regretting that won't help you to deal with the problem in front of you. Everything happens for a reason and the reason ALWAYS for your own good.


2. A Problem Means An Opportunity


It's hard to accept this fact - our mind has a game of its own. If you can see the 'opportunity' in things, you will be able to anticipate the problems because it's an opportunity for you to learn something new and overcome your weaknesses. Certainly, nobody will ask for more problems in their life but if it's unavoidable, then let's make the best of the situation. When you get lemons, make lemonade.


3. Be "Professional"


If the problem arises from others (which is very common), you must stay strong not to be affected emotionally by it and don't let it enter you. You have to build a mental barrier to block the negativity from entering your mind. This is not easy because when others are emotionally down, you subconsciously feel it too. Be strong or you'll get sucked into it too. Step away from the problem and look at it as an 'issue' rather than a personal thing.



4. Look Beyond The Problem To See The Solution



You can't solve your problem if you don't know what you're trying to solve and so see the problem already solved. Secondly, it helps in terms of motivation because it's always more motivating when you're in a celebrative mood. Have you watched the Lord Of The Rings movies? If yes... remember how challenging it is for Frodo Baggins to destroy the Ring? His journey has so many obstacles and the only thing that gets him to continue is seeing how wonderful it'll be once the Ring is destroyed.


5. Stop Attracting Problems With Your Mind Power



If you continue to get a new problem after a problem is solved, you might want to check how your mind is working. Believe it or not, these problems are the result of your inside and outer mental attitude. You can call it "Law of Attraction" if you want. Have you heard of 'streak of bad luck'? This is caused by your own mindset. Many people don't realize what their minds are capable of doing.


6. Laugh At Your Problems



Humor may be an effective counter poison to a lot of problems of the mind. Next time when you have problems, smile or laugh. Your problems will still be there but who knows, you'll find you have more ideas to solve them and feel less stressed out. You'll never know - it might just turn out to be the most effective "problem solver" tool.



Last of all, think of other people - others who are facing bigger problems than you. You'll be grateful that your "problem" of unable to buy a new car is actually nothing compared to someone in your city who doesn't even have a car to drive. Be gratitude with what you have because even if you can't solve your problems, you still have so many more things and intangible wonders in your life.

Attitude is Everything

Attitude can be defined as the way an individual looks at life. It is the outward reflection of what is taking place on the inside. It becomes his/her personality...it pervades their feelings and becomes their actions. Attitude is one of the most important aspects of life and a key to interpersonal relationships. There are two types of relationships in animal (or human) life, symbiotic and parasitic. Symbiotic relationships are mutually beneficial. Both of the animals (or organisms) involved receive a benefit from the other living with them.


Parasitic, on the other hand, is a destructive relationship where one benefits to the detriment of the other. When trying to accomplish something new, or break old habits in life, we need to associate ourselves with others who bring us up, those that help us become more than we were without them. Creating symbiotic relationships will only accelerate our progress. Attitude is key in tough situations; the better your attitude is in tough times, the better those opportunities become.

Read: Attitude Is Everything: Change Your Attitude... Change Your Life!

An oft-quoted cliché illustrates this point: "Most people are as happy as they want to be". There are very few, if any, easy roads to take on the road to success. Bumps and potholes, construction and traffic jams will constantly confront the typical person. The difference comes in how well the person can handle these difficulties. Shakespeare wrote: "There is nothing good or bad, but thinking makes it so". Attitude leans heavily on thoughts, and the harder things seem in the mind, the more difficult they will be in reality. It is imperative that everyone makes themselves as happy as they can be, and forsake the negative thinking disposition, and become forward thinking individuals.



Attitude, like the common cold, is contagious. The more negative people that there are in a room, the more negative the conversation will become. The inverse is also true. Think about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in the face of hatred, death threats, trials, and persecution he pronounced, "I have a dream". His dream was for the future. It was positive. Many people looked at his attitude and proclaimed that he was a dreamer, and that he was crazy. However, to the masses who followed him, his dream became one that penetrated skin color and pierced the hearts of thousands. About half a century later, no one can look back and say that he was not effective.



He sold millions in the future generations on his "dream"...what he really sold was a contagious positive attitude. It has been said by a well-known motivator, "It's your Attitude rather than you're your Aptitude that ultimately determines your Altitude". Very simple, you can become what you put your mind to. In all the studies done there is no evidence to say your knowledge or ability will give you the upper hand. The key to success is positive attitudes. There are many people with minimal abilities achieving greater heights than people with far greater knowledge or learning. Attitude has been called the spiraling effect.



This is the effect "like minded" people have on each other. It's been said; "Birds of a feather flock together". It can work both in the positive and the negative directions. If you have ever been in an environment where people hated their jobs and talked bad about their employer then you know how that can affect attitude. It can feel like a thousand pound weight weighing you down. On the flip side, groups of very successful people create more wealth for each other, as their positive attitudes create a form of synergy. In contrast the other group creates a negative synergy and the group becomes much less effective. It's the old saying the poor get poorer and the rich get richer. I believe they do it because of their own attitudes.

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