Ways To Enhance Your Positive Attitude

Most of us fail to achieve our potential not because of any lack of innate ability but because negative thinking patterns prevent us from fully using our abilities. You can counter negative thinking---a pattern of unproductive thoughts---by consciously developing a positive, constructive attitude. Attaining this attitude is not a one-time event, however; you must continuously cultivate a positive attitude to preserve and enhance its effectiveness.

Attitude Adjustments

To motivate yourself to practice positive thinking, you will need to change your approach to your thoughts. Thoughts cannot be seen, measured or weighed, but they are powerful---develop the habit of thinking of them as such. Once you begin to notice how the way you think affects your body and your mood, you should try to think of negative thoughts as pollution, just as people may think of cigarette smoke or excess cholesterol as pollution.

Desire Clarification

Positive thinking will get you nowhere if you don't know where you want to go. Do some soul searching to clarify for yourself what it is that you really want out of life. Try to forget momentarily about what you think you "should" want---think only of what you do want and what you would do if you believed that it was impossible to fail. Only after clarifying your desires should you temper them with evaluations of how realistic they are.

Thought Monitoring

Train your mind to become aware of itself, because you cannot control your thoughts if you are unaware of what you are thinking. Cultivate the habit of asking yourself, "What am I thinking right now?" Learn to recognize and identify potentially toxic thinking patterns. The Mayo Clinic identifies several such thinking patterns, including filtering out positive aspects of complex situations; inappropriately blaming yourself; engaging in polarized, or black-and-white thinking; and catastrophizing, or believing that troubling situations are far worse than they actually are and expecting the worst.

Positive Self-Talk

The Mayo Clinic defines self-talk as "the endless stream of thoughts running through your head every day." Once you learn to identify negative thinking patterns as you are experiencing them, you should consciously intervene to replace negative thinking patterns with constructive ones---focusing on solving a problem, for example, rather than looking for someone to blame.

Creative Visualization

Once you have harnessed the power of your thoughts at the verbal level, you will be ready to harness them at the audiovisual level. Creative visualization is the process of vividly imagining that your desires have already come true. Imagine what it would look like, sound like, feel like, smell like and taste like to experience success in your chosen field of endeavor. Consistent practice will gradually enhance your ability to imagine your desires vividly. Once you have harnessed the power of your thinking at multiple levels, you will find it far easier than before to act decisively and powerfully.