How To Be Positive And Happy

Sometimes it can feel like no matter what we do, everything always seems to go wrong. Have you ever had one of those days, weeks or months where no matter what you do, things just never seem to go right for you?

Don't worry because you're not on your own this happens to everybody but the important thing is to realise that this is just part light life happens around us not to us. The important thing is not what happens to us, but rather how we react to what happens to us. There is a simple equation to demonstrate this which a mentor once told me, it goes:

The event + Your response = The outcome

Now as you can see the only variable in this equation can be your response to what happens hence the only way you can change the outcome is by changing your response. 

This is why it's important to have a positive mindset and to see the opportunity in everything rather than feel like the world is out to get you. A question most people have is how do you start to create a positive mindset?

HOW TO BE A POSITIVE THINKER

Stop the negative thoughts

In order to create a positive mindset the first thing you need to do is stop the negative self talk. this is something that we all do some more than others, but the more that you do it the more that it just becomes a habit and the negativity will spread across your mind like weeds in a garden. 

The old adage - as a man thinketh so shall he be, is also true. If you continue to put yourself down and tell yourself that you are not capable of doing things, that you're not important, then that will manifest itself and you will not do anything and you will not feel important, so you need to turn this around and start with some positive self talk.

The first question you might have is likely about how to stop negative thoughts...

Practice affirmations

The first step to doing this is to start practicing positive affirmations. If you have read Think And Grow Rich, you will know these as 'Auto-Suggestion'

Affirmations are statements which you will tell yourself to affirm the person that you are. Think about the person that you aspire to be, your ideal you. Think of all the positive qualities about your ideal self that you would like to possess and create a set of statements that you can repeat yourself confirming that you already possess those qualities. These statements typically start with “I am”, which is a very powerful set of words, because every time you say I am, the words following program themselves in your subconscious mind and become the story that you believe about yourself, sort of like brainwashing yourselves!

This is another reason why you need to be careful about the words that you speak.

An example of this would be:

• I am a successful entrepreneur 
• I am confident in my own ability 
• I am focused on my vision 
• I am achieving my goals 
• I am free from negative thoughts influences and procrastination 
• I am constantly developing myself 
• I am an action taker 
• I am doing what others won't 
• I am always doing the right thing and not the easy thing 
• I am proud of myself for what I have achieved 
• I am happy that I can make a positive impact on the lives of others 

You should recite your list of positive affirmation out load, twice a day to start to instill self-belief, because if you can believe it, you can achieve it.

The key is not to just say them - say them with conviction, with meaning - importantly, say them with emotion, as it is when we link something to an emotion that we can pass it to our subconscious mind.

Clear your mind with meditation

Now in years gone by I used to think meditations for hippies and tree huggers, but I have since come to realise it has many beneficial effects, and I now practice it daily. Some of those benefits are that it clears your mind of clutter, helps you to focus on a single task and helps to calm and relax the body.

If you have never tried meditation before I would recommend starting with a guided meditation session where somebody takes you through a session with spoken instructions on what you need to do, such as how to breathe, what to think about and what to feel. 

Sometimes it can take a while to start to feel the benefits, but for me, it was pretty much straight away that I really noticed the change and my mind felt immediately clearer after my first time meditating - find a comfortable seat and get tuned it!

Be careful who you spend your time with 

Jim Rohn, the king of motivational speaking, once said you are the average of the five people who spend the most time with. Now although I don't know if there is any scientific proof to back it up, I can certainly say from my own experience that you do tend to pick up traits, behaviours, speech patterns etc. from the people who you are hanging around with.

If you were hanging around with people with no ambition who are miserable, pessimistic and have a general negative outlook on life then the chances are that you will become like them. Also these types of people are likely to put you down if you ever try to better yourself and it's not because they don't think you can do it it's because it will make them feel bad about themselves when they see you improving.

It's really important that you take a good look at the people who you spend a lot of time with and start to think about your relationships and whether they are helping you to grow or whether they're pulling you back down. if they are the latter then I suggest you start to reduce him out the time you spend around those people and if possible even cook out of your life altogether.

HOW TO BE HAPPY

Happiness is on the inside

A lot of people these days are on a quest for happiness they're always looking for the next thing and think that if they just achieve this one thing it will make them happy but the chances are it won't because there will always be something else that always feels like there is something missing. the thing to realise is that bye why always searching for Happiness you were implicitly implying to yourself and your subconscious that you are unhappy with yourself or your current situation otherwise why would you be looking for it.

The only place you will find happiness is on the inside - that's right, it's already inside you!

Happiness is a choice, it's all based on your perception of the world around you. If you look at your environment and your surroundings and think negatively about everything, you will feel unhappy about it. However, if you can look at your current situation or environment and take the positive out of it and show gratitude for what you have then happiness will be sure to follow.

happiness is a state of mind that you can choose to be in and it is connected to your physiology. it is an emotion - which breaking it apart you can see is energy in Motion. A great way to change your state is to get up and exert some energy - put a big smile on your face, stick-on some music and dance around in your underwear, always works for me! 

Practice gratitude daily

A key to being happy is being grateful. practicing gratitude daily and being grateful for what you have rather than focusing on what you don't have switches your mindset around.

Remember, you get what you think about, and if you constantly have thoughts of scarcity and poverty for the things that you want but don't have then you will attract more scarcity and poverty into your life. Instead, focus on what you do have, around you you at the things you have and try to imagine life without those things, even the most basic of things that we take for granted now, such as running water electricity clothes housing family a job whether you like it or not are all things that other people who don't have those things would kill for just to be in your shoes.

Each day think of at least one thing that you are grateful for, think what your life would be like without it and give thanks that you have it. Gratitude Journals are great for this as they often have pre-made templates, thoughts and ideas to get you thinking.

Stop linking your happiness is someone else's

Another reason why people fail to find happiness in their lives is that they link their happiness to somebody else's, be it a partner, child, a friend or anyone who is external to them. The problem with this is that people change and while you might spend your life trying to serve them and make them happy by doing one thing, one day they may just decide that they want something else which will destroy your own metric of how you measure happiness. 

Instead, you should link your happiness to achieving a well-defined goal. The gold will not change and you can measure your progress as you move towards achieving it once you have achieved that you can then celebrate and set new goals. Happiness comes from solving problems and feeling like we are progressing in life.

Find Your Purpose

Find out what you are here to do

It is said that we were all put on this planet for a certain reason, be it to entertain others, make a groundbreaking discovery, developing new technology, whatever it might be; we all have a purpose, yet so many of us go through life and don't even bother to find out what that purpose might be. Instead we carry on our mediocre lives living from day to day doing just enough to get by, with no other purpose than to survive - that's no way to live if you ask me!

When you truly find your purpose in life, what you were put on the planet for, and start taking action towards that purpose, you will start to feel fulfilled which will bring you the ultimate happiness.

How to find your purpose 

For a lot of people, the question is is how do I find my purpose? 

The thing is, when we were sent to this planet they didn't send us with a job description clearly detailing what it was we were sent here to do, so unfortunately, we need to find out by ourselves. 

There are some questions you can ask yourself to determine what it is that you should be doing with your life. questions like:

• If I had an unlimited amount of money, what would I do with my time? 
• What is it that I pay to do? 
• What do I do that makes me lose track of time? 
• What do I do that I fear being judged on (As a negative judgement would hurt your sense of self-identification)? 

Set goals and start making progress

One of the key reasons why people are unhappy and feel depressed in life is because they have no sense of purpose. As humans it is in our nature to feel like we are progressing and moving towards something. If we are not making any progress and start to feel like we are not adding any value to society, then we will start to feel worthless. This is why it is important to set goals and work towards them.

Once you ask yourself the questions above and determine the area in which your purpose lies, then you should go about setting yourself some constructive goals to work towards it that will make you grow. This in itself will give you a feeling of purpose and self-worth 

You may have heard of the smart system for setting goals (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely), however, I prefer to use the SMT system, that is just the specific measurable and timely elements. The reason for this is because who is to say what is achievable and realistic? 

When the Wright brothers decided that they wanted to create a vehicle that could fly through the air, do you think that seemed achievable and realistic at the time? When Marconi wanted to send voices through the air to a receiving station a distance away (the birth of the modern day radio) clearly people didn't think it seemed achievable at the time, because his friends had him locked up in an insane asylum!

The point is, by creating goals that you think are realistic at the minute with your current level of thinking, you are placing a limit on what you think is possible, which will handicap you from the start. set your goals big, and aim high. 

Take it from me, one of the worst things you can do is pick a goal too small and achieve it, because that gives birth to comfort and complacency, which can kill your success stone cold dead and leave you feeling unfulfilled. 

Conclusion

Life is 10% what happens to us and 90% how we react to it. 

Remember, happiness is a choice, so is misery. Create some goals so you have something clear to work towards. Work on your mindset with positive affirmations and stand guard at the doors of your mind - do not let anybody place their seeds of negativity in the fertile garden of your mind!