Positive Thinking & Happiness

Positive thinking is an amazingly powerful tool that is absolutely vital to being successful in life and to being happy. People tend to underestimate the power of being a positive thinker and don't understand how truly important it is.

It never ceases to amaze me how so many people will draw every ounce of negativity out of a situation without thinking for one moment what positives have come from a situation. They dwell on this negativity for days, months, even years to the point where they cannot be happy. I think we have all been guilty of doing this to at least some extent, but why? Why on earth should we obsess over negative events? What good is it doing for us? Absolutely nothing!

There is so much truth in Abraham Lincoln's statement when he said "people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be." Your mind is the only thing that can possibly upset you or produce any negative emotions that you don't want. If you are having a bad day, it is because you are allowing yourself to have a bad day. No one or nothing can make you have a bad day but you can choose to have one. I can guarantee you that no matter how poor you think you are, how unattractive you feel, or how awful you think your life is going, someone has it worse.

Get out a sheet of paper and something to write with and make two columns. In the first column label it "positives" and label the second column "negatives". Now sit somewhere quiet where you can concentrate and write out as many things you can think of in the negative column. Once you have written down everything negative in your life, begin writing everything positive in your life. For every negative thing you listed you should have at least one more positive (It doesn't matter what, just anything positive). For example, let's say in your negative column you put "I hate my job" and then in the positive column put something like "I have a job that pays the bills and provides for my family. I have a loving family."