5 Steps to a More Positive Day

(Photo: Cathy)

Learn How To Have A More Positive Day

Have you always wondered how some people always seem to be happy?  Have you ever caught yourself with a negative attitude that lingers for most of the day?  Do you want to uncover ways that you can be more happy even during the most difficult of days?

Below are five steps you can take everyday to make your attitude and spirits more positive.  Give them a try.  You never know, they just might make you one of those “happy” people!

1.) Wake up and Smile

Put a note next to your alarm clock that reminds you to smile when you wake up.  You have a lot to be grateful for, and most important of these things is your life.  You have a new day and a new opportunity to do great things.  There is no better way to show your appreciation for all this than with a smile.  And there is certainly no better way to start your day on a positive note!

2. ) Write Out Your Thoughts

There’s undoubtedly a lot going on in your head, even when you first wake up in the morning.  Both consciously and subconsciously there are a lot of things taking up valuable space in your mind.  Some of these things are positive, while others are troubling.  The troubling things will cause needless worry and anxiety unless they are dumped from your brain in a positive way.

I like to start my day by writing out all my thoughts.  I don’t stop writing until I am done.  I write several pages the old fashioned way, with pen and paper.  When I’m finished, it’s amazing how light and free my mind feels!  This is because I have freed up valuable real estate.  This allows me to focus on what I need to get done to make the day successful.  I highly recommend you give this exercise a try.

3.)  Repeat Your Positive Thoughts

Repetition is the key to learning.  Throughout the day, you will certainly be repeating many thoughts over and over in your head.  Unfortunately, most people tend to repeat negative thoughts.  You may recall days when you’ve repeated the same fear, or the same worry, many times over.  Perhaps you were nervous about something you were going to do later that day, so you repeated all the negative thoughts surrounding this event as it neared.

Instead, you should challenge yourself to repeat only positive thoughts.  If you catch yourself with a negative thought, put a spin on it.  If you’re nervous about something you have to do, imagine it being finished.  Even better, imagine it actually going well!  Then repeat that experience in your brain several times throughout the day.  This will not only calm you, it will also put you in a better position for success.

4.)  Do the Most Important and Difficult Things First

Often times, the most important things you need to do in the day are also the most difficult.  There is a reason for this.  It is easy to do the easy things, so no one has a problem doing them; therefore, the easy things are rarely important.  It’s the difficult things that could make or break your day, and you know this.  As a result, you put them off.  You wait for the time to be just right to do them.  You wait for yourself to be in the proper mood to get them done with the most energy and enthusiasm.

But it is rare that you ever find that “just right” time.  What happens when you put these difficult tasks off until late in the day is you make them sit in the back of your mind.  You dread knowing that eventually you are going to have to do these things, and this thought sits with you the whole day.

Yet if you simply do the most important things first, you free the dread from your mind and you set your day up to be very productive.  Perhaps new opportunities will open up for you.  Maybe you’ll be able to spend a little more time relaxing.  One thing’s for sure, by getting the difficult tasks out of the way early, each subsequent task will be much more enjoyable.

5.)  Take Some Time Out to Laugh

Even if your day is highly stressful, even if it seems everything is going wrong; take a minute to just have a laugh and realize things really aren’t as bad as you’re making them out to be.

I remember one time I was having one of those “Murphy’s Law” kind of days.  Actually, it was a rather terrible week.  Everything that could possibly go wrong, did.  Or so it seemed.  And so, I spent some time wallowing in self-pity and went onto Facebook to share my bad vibes with my friends by posting my status: “when it rains, it pours.”  Then, as I was walking home that night all sullen and deflated, the skies opened up and brought about a huge deluge on torrential rain.  Without an umbrella, I thought to myself “It just never ends.”  But then I remembered the Facebook status that I had just posted and realized that it had become literal.  It didn’t just rain, it poured.  And with that, I had a laugh.  I thought Mother Nature was really starting to mess with me.  This was the end of my downer attitude.

Laughter really is an amazing thing.  It makes you temporarily forget your worries and your fears.  It makes you more comfortable in uncomfortable situations.  It lifts your spirits and improves your mood.  It makes other people like to be around you and helps you like to be around other people.  Laughter is friendly and warm.  It makes you feel lighter, physically and emotionally.

So when things aren’t going so well, or even if they are, take a step back from your day and have a laugh.  Have a laugh with a friend, or even with yourself.  Just remember to relax and let it loose.

Remember, things are only as good as you make them out to be.  You have the power to make your day as positive as you want it to be.  Have fun, relax, and enjoy!  Each day is special; each moment, unique.

About the Author
Matt Maresca is a motivational entertainer who seeks every opportunity to inspire others with his unique philosophy on life. His website on motivation aims to put a unique spin on the world of personal development. For more from Matt, please visit: http://www.MyLifeMotivation.com.

Finding Happiness

(Photo: Laura  Taylor)

What Really Makes You Happy and Can Anyone Find Happiness?

To be sure happiness is elusive – there are those who might even say it is an illusion. How does a person gauge happiness? Certainly throughout our lives what we think will make us happy changes – at 6 probably all it took was a heavily frosted cupcake. As an adult, what is it? — a great job, a wonderful relationship, an African Safari? Or is that confusing happiness with wants or desires? Our Founding Fathers knew that happiness is something we all want, but also realized that it is something to be sought after, but not necessarily obtained, as they guaranteed us the Right to the ”Pursuit of Happiness” and not the right to “Be Happy.”

Most experts agree that happiness is much less about the things we do or the things we have, or even our achievements and accomplishments – than it is about the choices we make. In fact, many believe that happiness itself is a choice. Abraham Lincoln once said, “Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.” How you view the world and your place in it is a conscious choice. You can choose to find happiness in the little things, or choose to see only the negative. With the exception of certain clinical conditions and psychological abnormalities beyond the scope of this discussion, never doubt that happiness is a choice. We all know people that seemingly have everything in life, and yet are miserable, and others with little or nothing, that appear very happy. The difference is a conscious choice. To those who say – “that’s absurd, we have no control over outside horrible or tragic events – so we cannot choose to be happy.” That is true, you cannot choose whether this, that, or the other circumstance occurs in your life – but you can choose how to react to it, or think about it, and that is where the choice to be happy – or not, comes in.

There is a common myth, started by miserable people no doubt, or Ebenezer Scrooge, that most people find happy people silly or annoying. Actually, recent studies have found the opposite to be true, happier people have more friends, are married more, often stay married longer, and are more likely to succeed in their chosen careers. The same studies found that happy people are thought of as friendlier, warmer, less selfish, more attractive – and smarter, by their peers. That last one is interesting, because the idea of the “happy idiot” or “ignorance is bliss” – still pervades a lot of peoples thinking – but research has shown that there is no correlation whatsoever between happiness and intelligence.

So how then can we choose to be happy? Much has been written about that. The first step is to find a way to control negativity and negative emotions.  Follow the 80/20 rule, and find those few simple somethings that make you happy and do those. Do not dwell on the past, or the future – and I like the particular sentiments in this ancient Chinese Proverb:

If you want happiness for an hour — take a nap.
If you want happiness for a day — go fishing.
If you want happiness for a year — inherit a fortune.
If you want happiness for a lifetime — help someone else.