“Once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, you’ll start having positive results.” ~Willie Nelson
It has been scientifically proven that humans have a predisposition to focus on the negative. It seems to be inherent in our programming and reinforced by our upbringing.
Just think about the time as a child when you came home with 5 B’s and 1 D on your report card. Where did your parents focus their attention?
When we set new goals especially at the start of a new year, many of us begin by looking at the past year and asking ourselves “What didn’t I like?” or “What didn’t I accomplish?” We focus the 20 lbs. we didn’t lose or the sales quote we didn’t hit.
So we make a list of what we want to accomplish in the new year followed by a list of all the actions we will take to achieve our goals. Week 1, we’re knocking it out’ve the park, we’re excited, and we say to ourselves, this will be our best year ever.
Two to three weeks into our new program we may begin to wane a little and start to slip back into old patterns. By the time two months have past we are like, “What goals???”If this should happen to you here are 3 things you can do to get yourself back on track:
- Focus on the Positive – Make a list of what’s working, what you’ve done right, and the progress that you’ve made
- Speak in the Positive – Especially when speaking about yourself. Use positive words and phrases i.e. “I have an opportunity to improve even more next week” versus “I didn’t hit my goals this week” or “I am improving, I am doing better” versus “I can’t, I never, I won’t.”
- Decide to be Positive – Remember in a mere nanosecond you can decide to change your beliefs and your thoughts. And changing your beliefs, changes your behaviors and that will change your results. You are that powerful.
