HOW TO STAY POSITIVE

​Look on the bright side
There is always a bright side to every situation.  A lesson or perhaps an opportunity which arises from the loss of another.  Search hard for this and learn from any and all events in your life.

Think big picture
Disappointments which effect your day should not affect your week or month.  A simple way to achieve this is to see the big picture.  Maybe you didn’t get the project at work but does that project get you any closer to your annual, 5 year, or lifetime goals?  In most cases probably not.  But if so, keep working toward getting the next one!

Make time for the things you enjoy
Love golf?  Then make time for it!  Enough said.

Watch what you take in
TV, news, or what music you choose can have a large impact on your mindset and your life.  Just as in your diet, when you fuel your body with junk you get junk results.  The same applies to your media intake.  Starting your day by watching the gloom and doom local news will surely start your day on a negative note.  Listening to that song about hoes on the way to work probably won’t give you a positive outlook toward women.  Reading the newspaper about the latest celebrity gossip adds zero value to your life.  Though you know logically that these things aren’t what you believe and value, they have a cumulative subconscious effect on your mood and outlook so why not choose to fuel your subconscious with uplifting, positive information that adds value to your life.  Start your day with affirmations, listen to an audiobook that will help develop you personally or professionally on the way to work, and read about someone you admire. Try it for 30 days and let me know your results.

Spend time with positive people and avoid the naysayers whenever possible
We’re surrounded with them.  Energy suckers.  They seem like good enough people but most every word out of their mouth is a complaint about one thing or another.  They bring you down so avoid them at all costs and cut them out of your days by being too busy on developing yourself to speak about the latest catastrophe.  Spend your time instead with people who lift you up.  People who are encouraging, have similar interests or aspirations, or just plain happy positive people.  Start noticing this; some of the people closest to you, especially co-workers, are energy suckers.

Scott Bitterman, MSPE, CSCS, Owner of Emerge Athletics