5 Tips to Give Your Attitude a Boost

Your attitude about life is one of the most important factors for success.  A bad attitude gets you nowhere, while a good one can provide you with enough motivation to succeed beyond your dreams.

You may think that you already have a success-mindset, and perhaps you do.  However, you can always benefit from strengthening that attitude and therefore increasing your chances for the success you deserve.

Follow these strategies for improving your attitude for success:

1. Find your inspiration.  Discover what inspires you the most and use it to jumpstart your motivation whenever you go.  Feeling inspired enables you to maintain the drive necessary to find success.  Do anything you can within your power to find inspiration.

* Make a list of your ultimate dreams, and then ask yourself if you’re on the right path.  If you are, you’ll know that everything you’re doing will be rewarded.

* If you don’t feel like you’re on the right path, perhaps it’s time for a change.  Maybe there’s a deeper reason why you’ve felt a lack of motivation. Reflect on what this reason might be, and then decide on how you can renew your drive.  When you’re on the right journey, you’ll feel inspired!

2. Surround yourself with positive people.  (One of my favorites!)  When you’re around positive and inspiring people, you’re more likely to adopt those traits into your own personality and go for your goals with enthusiasm.  Negative people, on the other hand, tend to make you negative also.  Energy is contagious whether it’s positive or negative.

* If you must be around people that continually bring you down, do your best to avoid absorbing their negative energy by listening, but not taking the negativity to heart.

3. Jump right in.  The best way to improve your attitude might be to just jump right into life. Don’t be afraid to take initiative and plunge forward towards your goals.  People who take action find success.  If you take action and start to see the results of your efforts, your attitude will only improve. The action doesn’t have to be big – it just has to be something!  Remember, small steps are great ways to get moving.

* The increased drive and motivation you get from your actions can be the difference between success and failure.

4. Strengthen your focus.  Your focus can also play a role in your attitude.  When you are driven toward success, it’s easier to have an optimistic attitude. If you have a lack of focus and don’t know where you’re going, it leads to being unmotivated and uncaring.  You just seem to go in circles.

5. Allow for mistakes.  You’re only human and you will make mistakes from time to time.  Be careful to avoid judging yourself harshly when this happens, as it negatively affects your self-confidence.  If you work on more of a “go with the flow” attitude, you’ll find that you’re able to pick yourself back up and continue moving forward when you do make a mistake.

The main things to keep in mind are that the combination of inspiration, positive thoughts, and proper motivation can lead you to a healthy and positive attitude.  Follow these strategies daily and you’ll boost your attitude for success.

Is Negativity Holding You Back? The Commentary

I hope that you have had a chance to read the post yesterday, “Is Negativity Holding You Back?” I hope you enjoyed it and from the feedback that I am getting on it, I know you did!

It’s given me a lot to think about as I am sure it’s done the same for you.  Even as a positive thinker, I struggle at times with negativity.  It’s an awful feeling that creeps in sometimes when you are the most vulnerable.  Over worked?  Tired? Not Feeling Well?  Stressed? These are all things that allow that little bug of negativity to pop in and cause havoc in your life.  Well, life is life (or as I say a lot – “It is what it is…”) and certainly these things mentioned above aren’t going to go away and are bound to crop up in your life from time-to-time.

The real nugget here is how you manage them.  I’ve said time and time again in various places that it’s all about attitude and mindset. With the right attitude and the right mindset we can do just about anything.

I have been challenged a lot in the past few years and 2009 ranks up there.  Honestly, I will be happy to finish out 2009 and look forward to the promise of 2010 (not that I’m rushing the time, believe me!)  I know what gets me through each day is my positive attitude and my determined mindset.  Sure, I can be derailed from time-to-time because things happen (that’s life) and sometimes things don’t pan out the way that I see them.  I always try to challenge myself to look for even the smallest shred of positive that I can take away from a negative experience to turn it around.

We’ve all heard that “things happen for a reason.” It’s so very true!

When Judy and I first started the Gratitude Collection back in early 2007, we were thrilled to participate in a product search with QVC in conjunction with Oprah Winfrey.  We were thrilled – the Universe put this tremendous opportunity right in our laps!  We were very proud of our “pitch” and knew we did the best job that we could.  We knew that if it was meant to be at that moment in time that it would happen and if not we were okay with that.

Well, if you haven’t heard the story, we didn’t get picked.  For the first time in my life, though – I wasn’t disappointed! I couldn’t believe it – it was such an incredible feeling!  We knew some way and somehow our little brand would get to where it needs to be and at that point in time, this avenue wasn’t it.  I still believe that from the bottom of my toes and continue on its path today.

We all have a choice and today, if you have not done so already, I challenge you to “choose positive.” If you have chosen positive – keep it up, you are doing a great job! Know that life happens and you have all the tools you need to manage that pesky little critter of negativity.

In gratitude,

Positive Thinking Affirmations

I’ve been spending a lot of time lately utilizing positive affirmations.  I try to find something that resonates with me each day.

What is an affirmation, you say?

According to dictionary.com an affirmation is:

• The act of an instance of affirming; state of being affirmed.
• The assertion that something exists or is true.
• Something that is affirmed; a statement of proposition that is declared to be true.

There has been a lot of buzz over the past few years around visioning and in particular, the vision board, made popular by the Secret.

I remember Joe Vitale speaking about visioning.  He was talking about a car he once wanted.  He speaks passionately about how he visualized himself behind the wheel.  He could smell the leather seats, feel the grip of the steering wheel and even hear the music on the stereo.  The whole process is about acting “as if” you already have these things or have achieved your goals – not just material things.

Affirmations are a great tool to have in your positive thinking arsenal and aid in this process of “acting as if.”

Mindset is so vitally important in this process and it’s something I speak of often.  It is key to our success in anything we do.  It doesn’t matter whether it’s relational, spiritual, physical, or professional.

Changing your mindset is the single most powerful and important step you can take to change your life. The power of positive thinking has been studied by the psychiatric medical, scientific and spiritual community and they’ve all determined the same thing – positive thinking has power. Of course, changing the way you think is easier said than done. That’s where positive affirmations become a very useful tool.

A positive affirmation is a statement you can use to replace a commonly held negative statement. For example, if you’re always saying, “I feel fat,” then a good positive affirmation to replace this sentiment might be, “I am comfortable with my body and am the perfect weight for me.”

If your goal is to lose weight, for instance just think about how much more successful you will be and feel when you utilize positive affirmations.  The law of attraction tells us that “like attracts like.” If you are saying these negative statements to yourself, you are only attracting more of that to you.

Positive affirmations help you change your thinking by giving you something to lean on. They help you stay aware of your thoughts, which is the first step to changing them.

Finding the Right Affirmations for You

The next step is to determine what your negative thoughts are and to replace them. Here is a great list of positive affirmations:

•    My body heals quickly and easily
•    I am the picture of good health
•    The more grateful I am, the more reasons I find to be grateful
•    I know that I deserve to be loved
•    I give out love and it is returned to me tenfold
•    I have a wonderful partner and we are both happy and at peace
•    I am the perfect weight for me
•    I make positive healthy choices for myself
•    I express my needs and feelings
•    I am my own unique self – special, creative and wonderful
•    Everything comes to me easily and effortlessly
•    I love and appreciate myself just as I am
•    I accept all my feelings as part of myself
•    I love doing my job
•    I always communicate clearly and effectively
•    It’s okay for me to have everything I want
•    I am getting wealthier each day
•    I have an abundance of energy
•    My mind is calm
•    My thoughts are under my control
•     I am successful in whatever I do

As you look through the list of potential positive affirmations, are any compelling?  Do any of these affirmations resonate with you? The affirmations that speak to you are good ones to start with. For example, if you’ve been struggling with your weight, spend some time thinking about the negative self-talk you have around that issue and find a few positive affirmations which give you the strength and motivation to move through this challenge.

Affirmations are the first step towards changing your thoughts, however with any process; it takes time, practice, patience and a love and acceptance for yourself. Negative thoughts will slip in from time to time, as we are all human, but as you practice, it will get easier.

Trust yourself and the positive affirmation process. It will help to change your life.

Creating a Healthy Mindset

Do you feel you could use a healthier attitude toward life?  Would you like to approach things in a different way?  Is a healthier lifestyle attainable?

The stress of modern life can sometimes make it difficult to lead a healthy lifestyle.  However, you can start living healthy, today, by adopting a healthy mindset.

Even if you find yourself leaning toward a pessimistic attitude, you can still achieve a healthy mindset.  You just need to go about it in the right way.

How You Can Have a Healthier Mindset

Many people sit back, look at their lives, and wish they could view things in a more positive manner. Then they beat themselves up for being negative or not having the attitude and responses they wish they had.  This typical response doesn’t do anybody any good.

Instead of feeling angry with yourself for responding to life the way you normally do, think positively about your desire to have a healthier mindset.

Building a Healthy and Safe Support Network

One of the most effective paths to a healthier mindset is to find ways to deal with the stress in your life.  For some people, this is as simple as writing in a journal or blog every day.  Other people find that talking with friends or joining a support group is a rewarding experience.

It’s important to give voice to your thoughts and emotions. How you do this is up to you.

Eating Healthy = Feeling Healthy

Another way to achieve a healthier mindset is to eat the right foods and get enough rest.  When you feed your body healthy, nutritious foods and get the rest you need, you feel better all over.  Your attitude, as well as your body, feels refreshed.

Food and rest will not change the way you respond to things if you tend to respond negatively, but it will be a great start.  You don’t have to give up all junk food and your late night activities, but try swapping carrot sticks for French fries and an hour of sleep for Leno.

You’ll find that you’ll be able to acquire a healthier mindset when you take active steps to deal with your stress and treat your body with the tender loving care it deserves.  Suddenly the world becomes a much more positive place when you pair these things with positive thinking.

Positive thinking begins when you affirm the positives in your life. You can use the power of positive affirmations to reprogram your mind so you can think in a healthier and more positive way.

For example, each morning you could say, “I make positive choices for the best of my body, mind, and soul.” You can use positive affirmations in moments of weakness when you are tempted to fill up on junk food, respond negatively to something, or trade sleep for something less important.

When you create a healthy mindset by making good choices about food, rest, and positive thinking, you’ll enjoy the new ways you think, feel, and live.  You’ll discover that your happier, healthier lifestyle has arrived!