ABCs of a Positive Mindset

By Ethan Bredemeyer (Rollo Agent)

The alarm has gone off five times and now you are running late for work.  Prior to running out the door, you spill your coffee, burn your toast, and realize you forgot to start the dishwasher.  At your job, you are overworked and underpaid.  After work, you come back home and fix an appliance, pay the bills, and burn yourself while cooking dinner.  At night, you scroll through social media seeing all the complaints about a sports team while also watching the news on TV discussing all the tragic events happening.  As portrayed, these simple daily tasks can cause negative personalities to become the norm.  However, it’s time to change the norm.  Studies have shown living with a positive mindset has numerous mental and physical benefits, including increased resistance to illnesses, lower depression rates, lower stress levels, and a higher likelihood of being successful in the professional workplace.  How do we improve and build a positive personality?  It’s as simple as A-B-C.

First, a positive lifestyle begins with our Actions.  An average human is faced with approximately 35,000 decisions every day, ranging from simple choices like whether to brush your teeth in the morning to how to respond in a co-worker conflict situation.  A majority of these daily decisions can influence your attitude.  For example, let’s say you decide to not brush your teeth.  This decision will lead to bad breath, weird looks from your co-workers, some unappealing visits to the dentist, and decreased self-esteem.  This all could cause decreased effectiveness, lower efficiency, lower morale, and higher living costs, all fueling a negative attitude.  Therefore, consider the following recommendations before taking an action:

• Always do what is right, even if it is hard.  We are here to be good, honest people.  Let’s act that way.
• Don’t let one bad choice snowball the other 34,999 choices.
• Whether over the phone, face-to-face, or typing an email, communicate with a smile on your face.  People can feel your smile.

Developing a positive attitude also requires an ability to look at the Big picture in life.  Our faith and family should be the highest two priorities in our life.  With this guiding principle, we realize many issues that typically ignite negativity are temporary and can either be resolved or will pass over time.  Additionally, we must understand this life is full of highs and lows.  We must enjoy the highs and embrace the lows.  Remember:

• The people you think are doing “better” than you may not be (i.e., the grass always appears greener on the other side). 
• There are many people who wish they could have what you have. 
• You can only control what you can control.  There are several external factors which are beyond our control.  All we can do is our best and continue to pursue perfection.

The third element of a positive mindset is the Climate you are in.  Who you are around, what you watch, and what you hear all impact your personality.  Take a step back and think about some characteristics you have and where you possibly learned them from.  While several came from your upbringing, another large portion is developed by those you are surrounded by frequently.  Inversely, you leave a mark with every interaction you have.  Whether the mark is positive is up to you.  As you reflect on those you surround yourself with, be cognizant of the following:

• Always remember who you are, where you are from, and what you represent.  
• Every day, you can leave a good or bad mark with an individual, company, or organization.  It is up to you to determine which one you want to leave them with.
• Positive and negative mindsets are contagious.  If you surround yourself with positive people, you will become positive as well. 

Several years ago, a Lubbock radio station began each morning’s broadcast with “Good morning Lubbock!  Isn’t it a beautiful day on the Golden Spread.”  No matter if it was a bright sunny day or a huge winter storm, these were the first words sent through the station’s airwaves.  Starting out the day with this type of mindset sets the tone for the rest of the day.  Yes, there will be “stormy” days when nothing goes right; however, the ability to find the good in each day is what pushes you to the next day.  During the stormy times, we are one day closer to the sunny days and during the sunny times, we are one day closer to the stormy days. 

When we wake up in the morning, we have the choice to seize the day or let the challenges of the day seize us.  It’s our choice whether we want to be better or worse when the sun goes down. Engaging in positive actions, evaluating the big picture, and fostering a positive climate will not enable you to look for success, but rather live in it.  It’s always a GREAT DAY to have a GREAT DAY!