You are not born a negative person or a person, although you may believe you were. Your mind has been programmed to be a certain way, by those influences you had around you growing up and even now. You may have been brought up being told that you should always be prepared for the worst, not to get your hopes up or be content with what you’re given. As such, the little voice in your head repeatedly says such things to you, so you become entrenched in a negative world. Here’s the thing, the little voice in your head is YOU and only you can control it. Your mind is powerful, but you own it! Changing your perspective on life and how you approach it will have a profound effect on both your happiness and your successes. You need to get rid of as many of the negative generalizations you have made over the years and replace them with positive ones.

It’s very easy to wallow in the negative world, most of us enjoy moaning and asking for comfort from others. Talking about someone behind their back, whingeing about the weather, moaning about your weight, money, hair or whatever are all negative acts that have no goal other than to breed negativity. If you think about the people in this world that inspire you, how do you feel they conduct themselves? Do you think they’re interesting and fun to be around, or do you think they moan, wallow and generally walk around with an air of negativity? Most people who are successful are confident, engaging happy people and those traits aren’t the result of the lifestyle they currently lead (although that no doubt helps), they’ve always been that way. Determined to succeed, building relationships with people where applicable, believing in themselves and thus remaining positive in every approach they take.

Rather than looking at life for all its downs, why not look at it for all its ups? For every bad experience you’ve had, think of a good one and then focus on that. Think about what you have, who you love, what makes you smile. If you do something and you’re not happy with the outcome, simply take a note not to repeat that action again, don’t reprimand or criticise yourself, treat it as learning – try it another way. This approach really is very useful and if you use it everyday, you’ll start to see the benefits and impact on you and others around you.

If a negative thought enters your head, control it and flip it so it takes a different angle e.g. “this doesn’t work” turn into “this could work better” or “I’m broke” turn into “I need to think of how to make more money”. When you wake up each morning, smile and appreciate everything you have. If you’re not happy about something in your life, change it (no one else will do it for you). Rather than seeing a new challenge with fear and trepidation, look upon it as exciting and something wonderful.

If you see life as fun and a journey of learning, you’ll get so much more out of it. Laugh at yourself more and with others around you. Don’t get caught up in negative conversations about people, what does that achieve?  If others engage you in negative conversation, turn the conversation around into a positive – always avoid the perpetual whiners (it’s up to them to change their life).Every encounter with a person, food, travel, any aspect of life, provides you with the knowledge of what makes you happy and what doesn’t – what works for you and what doesn’t. The more you learn and recognise how to change things to be happy, the happier you will be!