Having a positive mindset is important because my thinking is the one that limits us. I can work hard to be a good public speaker, spend time writing as an author, take the exams to be a certified professional. No one stops me from reaching my goals except myself.
I could be limitless if I could have a growth mindset, believe in myself with confidence that I could achieve my goals, I could have the perseverance to reach them. But if I had a fixed mindset, if I think that I can never reach the next levels, then I would never be able to achieve what I want in life. I would feel ashamed of myself, looking back and never achieve anything. I am achieving nothing because I am not able to reach them. I feel ashamed because I never try. If I never try, I would never know. The chance of improvement is zero as I never try. But if I try, still I may not able to succeed, at least I tried and knows the path that did not work.
And I want to be successful personally, not only for myself, but it benefits others as well. At least my failure could be inspirational to the young generations, shared the lesson I learn with them such that they don’t repeat the same mistakes I made. What I encountered today may not be completely original, I am sure sometime in history, there would be someone with similar thinking as I do right now, just that he or she did not write it down, so nobody could learn from that experience.
I would like to preserve my thinking at this moment as it is something unique at this particular moment and time. There is no same person at the same time who has the same thinking as I do. I wish the words here could change myself as well as other people’s lives, such that we could have a positive mindset to pursue other goals in life. These are the fundamental prerequisites for any other goals since we would face a lot of obstacles to stop ourselves from reaching our goals. No one said we are not capable except the inner voice in our mind.
Having a positive mindset is to look at the world through a positive lens. There could be many perspectives on the same reality, we could look at the facts and interpret them from a negative side, see what things are wrong, what are the terrible consequences etc. But just like a coin has two sides, we could always find the positive side of the same issue.
The objective world is up to our subjective interpretation. If I could always look on the bright side, then I would become a happier person, which leads to a successful life. It is not about blindly ignore all the negative things in the world, but looking for opportunities in everything. My personal life would change as I could grab every opportunity from a neutral incident. There would always be something I could learn from the experience, something I could cherish and grateful for, and something I could take away from if I put my whole heart and soul into it.
It would affect the way that others perceive me as well, as I would be more positive and approachable, making others feel good instead of turning them down. I could influence them and help others to see the positive side of the world.
Having a positive mindset would affect the lives of the people around me as they would feel happier with my positivity. I can see the positive side of other people, praising them and care about them, thus bond us together as a community. Call out when other people exhibit some of the positive behaviour, such that we could reinforce that desired behaviour positively.
There are two kinds of people: those who look for miracles and find them, and those who don’t look for miracles and see none. If you are not looking for the positive side of the external world, you will miss a lot of opportunities. You merely need to share laughter with others to make a border beneficial social impact. Positive affirmation could improve someone lives who doesn’t have a positive self-image. People want to feel positivity in this world.
To have a positive mindset, I could celebrate whenever I got into this new thinking. I could eat some good food, grab a drink or screenshot the good feedback, immediately after I find a positive side from a negative event. My brain could then repatterns to make positive thinking more automatic in the future.
Celebration of the new mindset makes me feels good and has lots of positive side effects. Each celebration strengthens my mindset, and I can use many types of positive reinforcement to keep my thinking with a feeling of success. Celebration teaches me how to be nice to myself. I also need to be comfortable with the fact that there’s no such thing as a hundred per cent positive or hundred per cent negative either. I will never have all the information I want, and I can only do the interpretation based on the limited data I got.
Sometimes there is just nothing I can do to change my mind from the dark side. Think positively, exercise daily, work hard, stay strong, worry less and read more. Positive people talk to people because it is fun, not because I want to impress someone. I am active to achieve my goals and ambitions because I enjoy doing what I am doing.
It’s a choice to choose the positive or the complaint, a positive mindset is a step in a better direction. It’s a vital step to implement and begin something new and wonderful. I would be able to stay positive every single day. It sounds daunting, but the mindset change doesn’t have to be dramatic. Think about what it means to improve just one per cent per day and build upon that every single day. Doing so has a dramatic effect and will make me much better at the end of the year.
Wake up every day and ask me what is the 1% positive thinking I can change to make myself better personally and professionally. I need to have the belief that things I can cultivate through my efforts. If I master the art of receiving honest feedback, I would be unstoppable.
The biggest obstacle to a positive mindset is the feeling of resentment. Sometimes I just forgot to learn and grow. I could overcome it with a feeling of gratitude and appreciate things that happened in life and thank you for the exchange of information and advice.
I could see the new possibility by standing and thinking from different sides. There is always the danger that I will take my extra effort to think positive for granted or see it as a regular part of my life, so I may have to remind myself what I have done and the visibility of the effort.
When other people see the positivity, they would be more willing to help. I can catch more flies with honey. I would also need to realise negative thinking is not productive. I need to spot the thinking to save me time. I used to waste hours to do nothing to reach my goals just that I believe I could never be able to reach that levels, but I have to constantly remind myself from falling into that trap, and eliminate most of the negative self-talk that limiting myself. I just need to keep enough to stay relatively informed and balanced view.
It is unfortunate to be distracted from my goals by negative thoughts, instead, I should spend my time and energy on something productive. All those unnecessary worry and fear would become irrelevant by the time I do myself a favour and stop seeking it out. Filling my day with negative thoughts is like surrounding myself with noise. If, on the other hand, I do more meaningful and purposeful things to change the situation, then the inner voice is a helpful signal.
When the negative thoughts are just distracting and depressing, if it doesn’t spur me to change my behaviour, then that inner voice is unusable and just noise. The potential obstacle to break the negative thoughts is me. The important issue is how strongly I want to break the old thinking and establish the new positive thoughts.
One of the only ways that are likely to change my thinking is to make incremental progress. Sometimes I am having trouble writing that big speech for next month’s conference. I can monitor progress by just writing the keynote to the speech now. Sometimes I am overwhelmed by the amount of reading I need to do for my job. Set a goal for me for reading one chapter. Like the wise counsellor, I must take it one step at a time, one day at a time.
What I will notice in all of these scenarios is that they will present me with something achievable — a win on the way to reaching the championship of getting this job done. I could therefore build up my confidence with my positive mindset.
There are many disadvantages I have to face if I do not change my mindset. For example, I will have to settle for the same mediocre grades or jobs. I would not be able to spend time with my loved ones as they don’t like staying with the negative version of me. I would not get the raise and feel the emotional frustration.
I make decisions based on how I feel, so really feel the pain that I will have if I don’t have a positive mindset. This is the only way for me to make a change last and to get me to follow through. Pain can be my teacher and monitor my progress. I can use it and not let it use me.
Feeling good is not required to feel motivated. I could feel amazing and still get nothing done if my reasons for doing so are not strong enough. Reasons for positive thinking are tied to my purpose, identity and values that will sufficiently motivate me to act, even in the face of all of the daily obstacles that life puts in my way.
Sometimes being positive may not because I like it that way, but because maintaining a positive mindset so I can continue to be with my loved one is motivation enough to me, even though I would much rather sleep and do nothing on the weekends. When I exchange a fixed mindset for a growth mindset, I learn that interested can be developed through experience, investment and struggle.
Originally published at http://victorleungtw.com on June 6, 2021.
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