The Inspiration Place

Posts Tagged ‘Optimism’

Some people insist that positive thinking is dangerous to you, although they are not in the majority on this. But the disbelievers could know something. After all, just about everything good also has something to worry about. However, any pitfalls notwithstanding, the basic premise of being a positive person isn’t wrong. You just need to understand the ground rules.

There is one obvious danger related to positive thinking, that being kidding yourself into thinking everything is okay when it is anything but okay. There are, of course, certain obviously-negative situations that must be faced up to and dealt with whether you like it or not. The key here, is not to let one bad circumstance cloud your vision and optimism about other future issues. Then too, most bad things can still be responded to with a positive, problem-solving approach best achieved by thinking through the problem and the options available to solve it. That is a positive thinking approach applied to a negative issue.

In general, if you approach life with positive direction, the best way to confront any problem is to ask yourself: What do I want to accomplish?; what solutions are possible under the circumstances?; and what solution is the most practical for me?. This kind of self talk or self questioning almost always leads to the right answer.

Most critics of positive thinking believe it is self-delusional and they can be right in some situations. If you embrace positive thinking improperly, and refuse to face facts that are plainly before you, that is either deluding yourself or being in a state psychologists call denial. Neither is a good thing. You can be a positive thinker and still be a realist at the same time. Positive thinking is a way of looking at things, but not always necessary as a solution.

Critics also sometimes say that positive thinking takes away your awareness, self trust and intelligence. Not if you don’t let it. All those personal assets can be applied in a positive way and to great advantage. Just because you have a positive attitude certainly doesn’t mean you won’t trust your own intelligence and good sense in analyzing a problem.

All this being said, the pitfalls aren’t the result of positive thinking per se. Instead they are really the result of not applying the ground rules of positive thinking properly in some situations.

Well excess of anything may be dangerous but you still must be positive to face any kind of situation in life.

The benefits of positive thinking are well known and widely practiced. They are considered “guidelines to success” by most good businessmen, professional athletes and anyone else who wants to achieve all he or she can. However, sometimes it’s not easy to determine just how to go about becoming a truly positive thinker, especially if it represents a major shift in the way you’re used to looking at things.

The steps of positive thinking require a considerable amount of self talk and a continuously positive attitude. Once you learn to do this on a regular basis, you will gain optimism in place of pessimism, a new way of looking at the brighter side of things and, in general, the ability to expect good things to come your way. The necessary steps mean learning to have a positive attitude by finding reasons to smile more; choosing to be happy instead of sad; reading inspiring articles and books; looking at the bright side of life instead of worst-case scenarios; realizing that negative thinking is self destructive; and choosing to remain optimistic. Instead of thinking about and visualizing bad things happening, you’ll be ideating the good probabilities. Eventually, you may come to believe that no obstacle to your progress cannot be moved out of your way.

There are many benefits to be realized by accomplishing this. It will help you achieve personal and business goals and have success; successes will be faster and easier to attain; you will have the ability to inspire yourself and motivate other people and those people will respect you. Perhaps most important of all, you will be happier and have lots more energy. And always remember that a positive attitude says, “I can” while a negative says, “I can’t!” If you think that you can’t, you won’t, because you’ll never really try.

Ask yourself, “Do I really want to be a positive thinker?” If you do want to reap the many benefits of being a positive thinker, it takes a lot more than just telling yourself that everything will be okay. It has to be a conscious decision that is ‘top of mind’ with you all the time. It also has to include putting the fear of failing or rejection safely away in your back pocket for all time and becoming aware only of those good things that will come from your attitudes and efforts.

If you have a personal computer with Internet access, you can be the recipient of a wealth of detailed information about positive thinking written by experts with long experience. Merely type ‘positive thinking’ into your computer’s web browser and click ’search.” It will all be at your fingertips just that easily.