A famous American author, Hellen Keller said; ‘Keep facing the sunshine, and you won’t see a shadow’. This is a reference to the power of positive thinking. You might have heard about the power of positivity or how having a positive outlook can transform your life. This might sound like a cliché, but scientific evidence from multiple studies has proven otherwise. It appears that positive thinking leads to better mood and health and can help people be more successful in life. Whether it’s your career, personal life, when you´re mustering up the courage to deliver a business presentation or your quest to get through a difficult time, you can achieve virtually anything you want by mastering the power of positivity. Let us show you how!
What is the Power of Positivity?
The power of positivity is the ability to make one’s life better by focusing on positive thoughts and ideas. It is the belief that through the power of positivity, one can get a positive outcome during difficult times and live a successful life.
Perhaps one of the oldest references to the power of positivity can be traced back to the self-help book titled The Power of Positive Thinking. This 1952 book by Norman Vincent Peale proposes methods through instructions and positive case histories to promote positive thinking. While Peale received criticism from mental health experts and theologians for the lack of evidence to support his ideas, the public has hailed the book till this very day for helping people in transforming their lives. Peale’s book has sold over 5 million copies since its release and has been translated into more than three dozen languages.
Since Peale’s book, many other writers have come out with their version of self-help guides and books that narrate a concept similar to what Peale taught. A few of the most notable of these self-help books have been; The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment by Eckhart Tolle and The Secret by Rhonda Byrne. But it’s not just self-help books that give this message. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho is hailed as the best fantasy book that teaches positive thinking and the power of positivity.
How Negative Thinking Harms You
Before we discuss how positive thinking can help you improve your life, let’s see how negative thinking harms you according to science and why it is good to stay away from negativity.
Negative Thinking Causes Anxiety and Affects Your Health
It is no hidden secret that negative thinking affects both physical and mental health. Negative thinking inevitably leads to stress which affects your body’s hormone balance. Repressed anger and other bottled-up negative emotions can lead to long-term health issues such as; hypertension (high blood pressure), heart disease, and digestive disorders.
Lissa Rankin, M.D., the author of the best-selling book titled Mind Over Medicine: Scientific Proof That You Can Heal Yourself, explains that negative emotions trigger a fight-or-flight response in the brain, which damages the body’s self-repair mechanism. This predisposes the body to illness. Similarly, according to the research study by the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing at Case Western Reserve University, controlling negative thoughts early on can help protect millions of people from mental health issues.
Negative thinking can Reduce Efficiency in the Workplace
It takes only basic observation to determine how a negative outlook can reduce efficiency at the workplace. For example, employees who are unwilling to collaborate, don’t try new things due to fear of failure, and are always in a bad mood, also suffer from lackluster performance and access to better career opportunities. No one likes to work or deal with an individual who is always in a bad mood or has a gloomy outlook towards life. This is usually the type of attitude that also annoys bosses and gives a negative impression of the person with such an attitude.
A survey conducted by an international manufacturing organization concluded that 10% of their employees with a negative outlook at the workplace had 30% lower performance scores. This later became a part of a more extensive study, which concluded that workplace negativity affects employees’ well-being and performance, leading to increased absenteeism.
Negative Thinking Makes You Irritable and Repels People from You
For someone, a measure of success would be a promising career, whereas others might deem a happy family life, a loving life partner, or a balanced lifestyle to be a measure of success. Part of achieving any of the aforementioned is to have the right attitude! Imagine two people, one with a negative outlook towards life who is always in a bad mood, tense, spreading negativity, and another person who always looks at the bright side, manages stress well, constantly giving positive vibes. Which one would you prefer? Be it as an employee, life partner, or colleague, the second person is likely to be liked and respected compared to the former.
Negative thinking has repercussions for your career and person’s life and makes you less likable, and repels people from you. This can lead to social disconnect, depression, and low self-esteem. Negative thinkers are often labeled as toxic, and as we all know, no one wants to be around toxic people. Hence, negative thinking can lead to loneliness and being socially isolated. Research suggests; perceived and actual social isolation can result in health-related repercussions and early mortality.
Negative thinking can Lead to Missed Opportunities & Affect Your Career
Negative thinking can discourage people from exploring new opportunities, which can result in missed opportunities. You might have seen that guy who doesn’t apply for a job because he thinks he won’t be able to get the job or the person who regrets not expressing his feelings for someone he liked. You don’t try means that you will never know what outcome you might have achieved.
Not trying is part of what can make someone miss out on their dreams and goals. Many successful people didn’t achieve success because they got lucky or never failed but failed several times but kept a positive outlook and never gave up. Albert Einstein, one of the greatest scientific minds in human history, failed his entrance exam to the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School and later died as an insurance salesman. Bill Gates, one of the richest men on earth and the father of modern home computing and the founder of Microsoft, started with a failed venture, a company called Traf-O-Data that he had established to analyze raw traffic logs. Colonel Harland Sanders, the founder of KFC, was considered a failure all his life, and as many as 1,009 restaurants rejected him before he was able to sell his franchise model to one. The common factor in all these examples is perseverance and a positive attitude that led all these people to become successful.
Negative thinking can Lead to Long-term Problems
All of the aforementioned provides evidence that negative thinking is not only bad for your short-term health, career, and personal life but can also have long-term repercussions. Persistent negative thinking can lead to ailments like GAD (Generalized Anxiety Disorder) and heart disease, depression, and other physical and mental health problems. Similarly, negative thinking can label you as a toxic person, leading to social isolation at the workplace and in your personal life. On the contrary, the power of positivity can help you avoid the issues above and allow you to be happier and more content in life.
How to Incorporate Power of Positivity to Improve Your Life?
Now that we have discussed how negative thinking can have repercussions for you let’s take a look at how the power of positivity can improve your life.
Focus on Positive Thoughts to Boost Your Energy
Jessica Pryce-Jones, author of Happiness at Work, says; that happier people have more energy at the workplace than people who are less happy. Different scientific studies have determined that smiling increases brain activity and improves mood and energy. Hence, focusing on positive thoughts can help you boost energy and improve your mood.
Exercise, Socialize, and Do Things that Make You Happy
If a lot of stressful circumstances face you, you can try to keep a positive outlook by focusing on what might make things better for you and keep an eye on something that you can do to relax and keep your mind off stress. One of the best ways to keep yourself preoccupied with positivity is to look after your health, socialize and do things that make you happy. Exercise can be a great way to achieve those above and to build a social group that can help you lift your mood, health, and overall outlook towards life.
Use Positive Thinking to Improve Decision Making
Another benefit of positive thinking is that it improves decision making. This can significantly help you in your career and personal life. Research by The National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) concluded that people with a positive mindset have better problem-solving skills.
Don’t Attempt to Copy Others
It was stated in a study published by the American Psychological Association that comparing yourself to others using social media can lead to adverse effects, including depression. It can be argued that the rise of social media has led to more people attempting to replicate their perception of happiness by copying others via social media. Not realizing how much of what people see on social media is either fake or not necessarily suitable for everyone. You might see a video of an athlete performing daredevil stunts, hoping you can do the same. People can often feel dissatisfied by looking at others, not even realizing that they might be better off than false impressions of others online.
Focus on Plans to Succeed in Life
One of the best ways to continue keeping a positive outlook is to focus on plans to succeed in life. This can help you get your mind off negative thinking and give you hope for a better future. Such plans can be pretty motivational and can be the gateway for you to make the most out of the power of positivity.
Positive Thinking Should be Followed by Positive Action
If you’re thinking that merely focusing on positive thoughts can change your life, you’re half correct! The other half of success requires you to follow up positive thinking with positive action. If you want to excel in your career, look for better opportunities and achieve your goals. If you want a happy married life, look for a suitable life partner, or in the case of having one, make an effort to keep your relationship healthy. The point is that you will have to make an effort to materialize what you have planned. Things might not always go the way you want them to, but they might take you to a place where you’re content with life.
Final Words
The above-mentioned is not meant to imply that positive thinking alone can resolve all types of issues. Still, that positive thinker can make the most out of life and keep their efficiency going or make lifestyle changes that help improve their lives. Hence, the power of positivity also requires positive action.
A review published in the December 2005 issue of Psychological Bulletin examined studies of over 275,000 people who attributed successful people partly to their positive attitude. This is because positivity leads to better energy, confidence, mood and makes people more friendly and likable.
The idea is not to face abusive behavior and be passive but to keep a positive attitude and look for ways to make life better. Moreover, it is also essential to have gratitude as it is not happiness that always leads to appreciation, but gratitude often brings joy. Moreover, cutting out on overthinking, bottled-up anger, and cutting ties with people who bring you down can help you propel forward in life and teach you to be content at any given point in your life. Similarly, when the chips are down and you are faced with an imminent crisis, keeping a positive outlook can not only help you get through such a problem but also enable you to avoid straining your physical and mental health.
1. Glad Sad Mad PowerPoint Presentation
The Glad Sad Mad matrix is used for sprint retrospectives allowing the gathering of insights from the project. Its conveniently establish as an emotional panel that allows the project stakeholders to understand key points of improvement or change. Use this PowerPoint Presentation template to understand how you can move togheter more positively as a team.
