The Keys to an Optimistic Outlook

When I was growing up, I didn’t really think too much about my self-talk that was playing over and over in my head. I just lived life each day and never really gave my outlook on life that much attention.

If I found myself in a situation that was not going well, or was looking like the outcome would be bad, I didn’t think about how my attitude or outlook was contributing to the whole formula. Although I would want a different outcome, I didn’t think to try to take control of it by controlling or at least actively engaging in my personal thought processes.

Rather than actively engaging in mental and emotional progress that would help me get better reuslts, I used to just say things like “I sure hope things will change…” Then I learned that the only way things are going to change for me is when I change.

As Jim Rolm shares;

“If you want to have more, you first have to become more. Go to work on yourself harder than you do on your job. Success is something you attract by the person you become.”

House of Pain

So many of us have grown up surrounded in an environment  poisoned with negative influences and feedback. When one has that background in their formative years and the journey into adulthood comes a long, it can be like sitting on the launching pad with heavy weights in your payload and little fuel for your rockets.

It can even cause one to think that a negative, or pessimistic life is inevitable. It can cause one to have a constant feeling of doubt about them self or to the accepting of an under-performing life.

What to Do

I have spent my adult life practicing and sharing the benefits of an optimistic attitude. Here are a few keys I would like to share with you that are excerpts from The Path to Success is Paved with Positive Thinking by Wally Amos.:

1. Stop being your own worst enemy. Be your own best friend
2. Don’t put yourself down. Pull yourself up.
3. Don’t permit others to define who you are. You cannot be a failure without your own consent.
4. Respect yourself. Place high value on yourself.
5. Take stock of who you are and what you’re capable of. Work on weaknesses and find new strengths every day.
6. Replace, “I can’t” with “I can” and “I will”.
7. Treat yourself generously, the way you want others to treat you.
8. Be compassionate. Love yourself, and others will love you.
9. Remember that you are an individual expression of God. As a work of God’s art, you are priceless and irreplaceable.
10. Visualize what you want from life, and then work toward it. See it, and then be it.
11. Allow time to be by yourself, with yourself. Take time to appreciate yourself.
12. Enjoy your uniqueness. Out of all the billions of people since the beginning of time, there has never been, and never will be another you.
13. Realize that you’re important to the entire world; what happens to the world begins with you.

A positive attitude enables you seek solutions and answers instead of playing the victim. What can you personally do to eliminate the negative influences that surround you and your team? What additional keys to success can you share? I would love to hear your thoughts!

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Kristi Royse is CEO of KLR Consulting
She inspires success in leaders and teams with coaching and staff development
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Image Sources: media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com,  selfhelpzone.com

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