Create Opportunities With Your Attitude
A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity -
An optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty
~ Winston Churchill
So many of us are being tested these days. Hiring freezes. Layoffs. Careers interrupted. Salary reductions. Big belt tightening. Double income families down to single income. Plans changed. Stress.
With all that’s going on today, it’s easy to have a negative, pessimistic, or fatalistic attitude. It’s easy to think that you just can’t get ahead until the economy turns around. Or until the hiring freeze lifts. Or until your husband gets a new job. Or…. The fact of the matter is that you can start moving forward with your life as soon as you determine to do so. And that’s regardless of the state of the economy. I don’t care what the stock market says or how high the unemployment rate is: if you set your intention on a particular goal, you will achieve it.
That’s because everything you do starts with your state of mind. Your greatest asset is your attitude, if it’s positive, that is. Positive thinking can even make you healthier, according to the Mayo Clinic. The health benefits that positive thinking may provide include:
- Decreased negative stress
- Greater resistance to catching the common cold
- A sense of well-being and improved health
- Reduced risk of coronary artery disease
- Easier breathing if you have certain lung diseases, such as emphysema
- Improved coping ability for women with high-risk pregnancies
- Better coping skills during hardships
No one understood the power of positive thinking better than Christopher Reeve. He lived it. But we aren’t all models for the example of how Mr. Reeve lived his life. The majority of us wrestle with negative self-talk that sabotages our advancement and growth.
Below is a chart from the Mayo Clinic with (on the left) common negative self-talk and how you might apply a positive thinking twist.
| Negative self-talk | Positive spin |
|---|---|
| I’ve never done it before. | It’s an opportunity to learn something new. |
| It’s too complicated. | I’ll tackle it from a different angle. |
| I don’t have the resources. | Necessity is the mother of invention. |
| There’s not enough time. | Let’s re-evaluate some priorities. |
| There’s no way it will work. | I can try to make it work. |
| It’s too radical a change. | Let’s take a chance. |
| No one bothers to communicate with me. | I’ll see if I can open the channels of communication. |
| I’m not going to get any better at this. | I’ll give it another try. |
If Mr. Reeve were still alive and were here, I’m rather confident he’d remind us that you don’t have to be Superman to rid yourself of the gremlins in your head! It does, however, take daily practice and lots of regular reinforcement. And, of course, a good coach can always help. Whether you’ve decided to stay the course or create change during these challenging times, doing so with your most positive attitude is a key to success!
Suggested Action Items
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When a negative thought comes into your head, make a note of it, and send it on its way. The more aware of what you’re saying you are the more control you’ll have over stopping the talk. Tell yourself that you no longer have any use for such thoughts in your life. Remember that they are only thoughts. They are not facts. Repeat: They are only thoughts.
- Make a record of your negative self-talk. Once written down, I have options for you. (Of course, you can identify others that feel right for you.) Having reduced the thought to writing, one option is to immediately discard it. In other words, file the negative thought where it belongs. See # 3 for a second option.
- Analze the negative self-talk for patterns. After writing a week’s worth of negative self-talk in a special diary or notebook, review it for patterns that might be helpful to you. For example, are you more negative about yourself or others? Would your friends agree with what you’ve said about yourself? Is there objectively, any factual basis for what you’ve said? This process will help you further let go of the negative thoughts and hasten the process of ending the negative self-talk.