3 Ways To Be More Positive By Highlighting The Good In Life
Get the good in your life to stick.
getty When life seems filled with negativity, you can learn how to be more positive by seeing what's good in your life.
How do you tell your stories? Do you like the reaction you get from the dramatic? When it comes to your life, does the sensational sound better?
One of my grandmothers lived to be 105 years old, and as long as she lived, she had a story to tell.
Her stories were often fantastical — the woman lived through a car, a plane, and a train crash! Through the years, my family loved to sit around and recount those dramatic encounters.
I, too, tend to highlight the drama in my own life stories. More often than not, I find myself starting a story with, "You’re not going to believe this!"
This problem is that this pattern of highlighting the dramatic can lead to even more drama.
Did you know that you think about 60,000 thoughts a day? What’s more, 80 percent are negative. It’s just how we’re programmed.
When you head down a path that feeds into the negative aspects of your life, this is what you share. And the people around you start to expect the drama, so you tell them more.
Before you know it, you’re in a Story Snowball Effect. And the pressure to keep up the drama can weigh you down and invite more drama.
Over time, negative situations cling on and repeat themselves. This pattern then starts to become the norm.
When you sense this happening, when you’re exhausted from the effort of it all, it’s time to break the cycle.
It’s time to repel the negative and get the good in your life to stick, just like velcro.
If you want to learn how to be more positive by highlighting the good in life, here are 3 important steps to take.
1. Turn down the drama.
Remember, you are the thinker of your thoughts. This means you ultimately have a choice when it comes to what you think about and how you interpret the events in your life.
Don’t make the situations in your life bigger or harder than they need to be. Instead, keep it simple and turn down the drama.
2. Watch your words.
Remember my favorite story opener: "You’re not going to believe this!" That sets the listener up for a juicy tale. But the story rarely lives up to that opener, unless you focus on the drama.
I often hear my clients say, "I was in the wrong place at the wrong time."
What a negative phrase! What do you think that phrase tells your brain? If there’s one is that there are certainly more things that are in the wrong place.
Instead, what if you began with, "I was in the perfect place!"
Your word choice can bring about more of what you’re ultimately looking for, which is positive situations. So, watch your words!
3. Focus on what you want.
Think about the last time you were car shopping. I bet the second you decided on the type of car to buy, you began to see that car everywhere you went.
This is an example of your Reticular Activation System (RAS), and it’s the way your brain works.
If you focus on the positive situations you want to happen and picture them in your mind, you can make them a reality.
There are certain moments in our lives that are truly dramatic. But these should be the exception, not the norm.
With these three steps, repel the negative and more good things will stick.
Hilary DeCesare is the Founder and CEO of The ReLaunch Co. She’s appeared on ABC’s The Secret Millionaire and on major news outlets such as CBS, ABC, Fox, Huffington Post, and Yahoo, and offers several ReLaunch courses and coaching. To connect with her directly or for media requests please email hello@therelaunchco.com.