Having a positive attitude is more than just being happy and pleasant. It truly requires one to embody positivity in every aspect of their life and thought process. You can tell when someone has taken up a life of positivity; they walk tall, their voice is more confident, and their body language shows exactly how they feel.
Positive thoughts are contagious, but so are negative thoughts. We take on the feelings and thoughts of the people around us. So if you are positive around your team, they will be affected by it in one way or another. We all do it. We all gravitate toward positive people when we need to be uplifted! People are more likely to help you if you more positive, more likely to refer you business, and more likely to stay with your team.
In order to turn your mind toward the positive, some introspection is required. Despite the phrase, “Just be more positive! It’s simple!” it actually requires practice, attitude changes, and time.
- Change your words: You have control of your vocabulary. Teach yourself more positive phrases, ones that build up instead of tear down. Start by changing your inner dialogue and then incorporating those phrases and words into conversations with your team or clients.
- Replace negativity with the constructive: Once a negative thought enters our minds, we need to be able to identify it so we can replace it with a constructive phrase. Negative thoughts bring our attention to something that wasn’t executed well, we fell short on, or whatever it may be. They help us improve, but not efficiently. When replacing a negative thought with a constructive one, we become more action oriented, pushing us to excel more quickly.
- Be persistent: Don’t give up on positivity! Let’s say that you had a really negative day and you couldn’t keep those positive thoughts and words top of mind. Start again tomorrow. There is nothing to lose by trying again. You will see your progress over time, not tomorrow.