Positive thinking works.
At least, it can work if we adopt it as a mindset such that it improves our ongoing perspective. But to turn positive thinking into lasting change–into positive living–we need something more than fleeting good thoughts.
But let’s start with the thinking part. Unfortunately, our thinking often works against us rather than for us. Negative thinking affects all of us on a daily basis, and it can lead to compulsive habits or even dominate the lives of some.
Dr. Daniel Amen, a leading brain researcher, identified nine Automatic Negative Thoughts (ANTs) that many of us employ that perpetuate harmful feelings and impact our emotional well-being. Some of those negative thinking habits are:
- Focusing on the negative in a situation.
- Predicting the future in a negative way.
- Blaming other people for our problems.
- Believing negative feelings automatically.
Whatever Automatic Negative Thoughts we choose, the good news is that we can also choose to manage our mind to think more positively instead. When we do, our positive thinking becomes a powerful tool to help us transform our lives.
It Starts With Positive Thinking
With negative thinking so prevalent in our lives, and with it being so effective at disrupting them, it makes sense that positive thinking should work as well, and it does. It many ways, as Buddha said, “We are what we think.”
“Negative emotions prevent your brain from seeing the other options and choices that surround you. Positive emotions broaden your sense of possibility and open your mind up to more options.” (“The Science of Positive Thinking,” The Huffington Post)
Positive thinking begins when we make the deliberate choice to take back control of our internal conversations, when we adamantly declare we will no longer allow negative thoughts to flow unhindered through our consciousness.
The first step is to recognize negative thoughts for what they are, which are often distortions of reality stemming from our insecurities or worries. Many negative thoughts are mere lies, but we too-often choose to believe them anyway.
But, at any moment, we can choose where to focus our thinking. It is as if there are two photographs in front of us, and we have to choose to look at one or the other, and the choice we make affects our thinking. But which will we choose?
On of the most powerful tools we can use to think more positively is to “manage our mind” using the three steps of Pause, Evaluate, and Choose. We do that learning to pause and evaluate situations we face in order to make more thoughtful choices. This is one of the simplest—yet most life-changing—techniques we can adopt to think and live positively.
Positive Thinking to Positive Living
Are there benefits to positive thinking? Absolutely. But there are other things we can do to help us turn thinking into reality and to live not only more effectively but more efficiently as well.
Efficiency is being organized and doing things the best way. It’s when we “think smart, work smart, live smart.” Managing our mind helps us live efficiently as we learn to better manage our priorities, manage our time, and manage our resources.
Manage our priorities (positive planning)
Planning helps us live effectively (work on the right things) and to live efficiently (work smart). It encourages us to envision the future as an opportunity, set aspirational goals, and build a plan to get there. We can do that at a broad level by writing down a life plan, and we can manage our priorities as we go by building a daily to-do list. In either case, we should:
- Pause to consider “WHY” – Visualize the benefits of reaching our goals and use that as motivation for change.
- Evaluate the “WHAT” – Think about options we have to reach the goal and the pros and cons of each approach.
- Choose the “HOW” – Select the actions that best align to our longer-term objectives and our short-term goals.
Managing our priorities is a powerful way to change our lives and reach that positive view of our future, one step at a time.
“In order to carry a positive action we must develop here a positive vision.” (Dalai Lama)
Manage our time (positive scheduling)
Each of us has too-many activities that compete for our attention and often consume much of our time. But just think of what we could get done if we committed a majority of our time to the most important ones and set aside time for them each week and each day? And declared that, just for today, we would manage our time wisely. Which we can do if we:
- Utilize time blocking – Pause to pick the top few key projects and block out time on the calendar for those activities.
- Avoid procrastination – Evaluate the distractions that could get in our way and the positive benefits of staying on track.
- Fight to stay focused – Choose to keep working on that project for at least the time we blocked out and stay committed.
Time is a precious and limited resource we have been given, so it makes sense that we should manage it wisely.
“The key is in not spending time, but in investing it.” (Stephen R. Covey)
Manage our resources (positive doing)
- Positive believing – Pause to remember we can glorify God through how we choose to live. We can use that motivation to help us apply passion and commitment to our responsibilities and work as efficiently as we can to do our work well.
- Positive spending – Evaluate the resources we have been given which include our time, skills, money, and opportunities. Our role is to be a good steward and spend them wisely, so we should think about how to achieve our goals efficiently.
- Positive living – Choose to live life to the fullest by giving it our best. We can thankfully let go of how we lived yesterday and live today as well as we can. We do that by taking the next right step to get into action and work on the right things.
We do not need to be held captive of imperfect belief, bad habits, or past mistakes. Instead, we can live positively today!
“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” (attributed to Albert Einstein)
In summary, positive thinking is a great start, and it does work. But we will also greatly benefit from positive planning, positive scheduling, positive doing, and especially positive believing. Because those things lead to positive living.
Life is too precious to allow negative thinking to consume us. Positive thinking and managing our mind help keep that from happening, and it comes to fruition when we turn that into positive living. Which we do one thought and one step at a time.
Next Right Step: Keep this article and commit to read it once a week for a month to help you live efficiently and positively.
