Over the last couple of years, I’m working towards thinking more positively. It has been a continuous work in progress, but it has changed the way I view the world greatly.
Just like everyone, my life isn’t perfect. Everybody has something that will make them scared, sad, or angry. This can make it hard to see the positive in any circumstance.
I’ve made it my goal over the past years to complain less and to focus more on the positive side of things. I believe that there are many benefits to positive thinking!
Being positive doesn’t only relate to your mental wellbeing. It is something that can impact many areas of your life.
I’ll share with you what impact positive thinking can have, what changes I’ve made in my life, and what steps you can take.
The Impact Of Being Positive
This is an important topic I feel like discussing since being negative can have a big impact on your life.
Being negative can impact your personal finances, as you think you will never get out of debt, accomplish financial independence (or retire early), or are able to build a passive income. This may result in you giving up, which means you will never achieve the goal.
If you’re being positive, you know that you can achieve any financial goal you set for yourself. If you’re working towards big goals like financial independence or having 1000 EUR monthly passive income, you know it will take a while.
Even though you realize that it’s not going to happen within a month or even a year, you still don’t give up and keep working towards it. One step at a time.
Another example.
Being negative can impact your personal life, as it can make someone feel that they don’t deserve certain things. They don’t deserve time with their friends or family, for example.
If you’re being positive about this, you can start to have fun with your friends and family because you love to spend time with them and be with them.
Being negative can impact your career, as it can make you feel you can’t ask for that raise, believe you’re stuck in a job you hate, or they won’t give you your promotion anyways.
If you’re being positive about this you are asking for a raise because you know you deserve it, you are going to actively look for another job, or you will ask for that promotion you deserve.
I can go on and on about this, but I guess you get the point.
Being positive can help improve your financial life, your career, your personal life, and everything in between.
Benefits Of Positive Thinking
There are many benefits of positive thinking, some of which I’ve totally figured out and many that I’m still struggling with. I want to highlight what positive thinking has done for me so that you can take the same steps to improve your life.
Being Positive Helps You Stop Dwelling On The Past
The first thing that positive thinking helps you with, is to stop focusing on what happened in the past. You will realize that you can’t change what happened, you can only focus on how to improve in the future.
While it can be frustrating at times and feel totally impossible to change your mood, when you’re focusing on the past you’re focusing on something that will never change.
Try to focus on the positive and learn from the lessons that are given to you.
It’s a process that can take many years in some cases. For example, it took me over 10 years to fully embrace the fact that my dad passed away. I took some great lessons from him, which I’m eternally grateful for now.
Being Positive Motivates You
If you’re being negative in a situation, it can lead to inaction. You freeze. No action happens. Just your mind keeps racing and racing.
That’s what you want to get out of!
If you’re focusing on the positive side, you will get motivated. You realize that you’re changing and that what you’re working towards is something amazing and fabulous!
You’re focusing on your goals and how you can achieve them. You believe that good things are possible for you and that you are changing your destiny.
If you’re looking for motivation, I have written down my favorite money affirmations to attract wealth and abundance. If you’re focusing on affirmations, you will enable the positive side and get more motivated to reach your goals.
By being positive, you will be motivated to reach all these big financial goals. You are motivated to reach financial independence, travel the world, go after your dream job, live your dream life, and more.
Being Positive Can Change Your Results
There is this model, that you may have heard of.
The model states that: thoughts affect your feelings, feelings affect your actions, and actions affect your result.
If you want to change your results, the thing you should start with if your thoughts. If you change your thoughts, your feelings, actions, and the result will change as well.
What Steps You Can Take To Be Positive
Okay, so how the heck do you learn to be more positive?
Here are a couple of things that really work for me:
- Register your thoughts. What are you thinking throughout the day? If you tell yourself: “I can get financially independent”, what does the little voice in your head say? If it’s telling you that you can’t do something, that’s where you got work to do. That’s great if you’re becoming aware that’s the first step.
- Instead of thinking “I can’t”, start thinking “I can”. Focus on what you want and on how you can get there.
- Be nice to others. If you’re helping someone, this will have an immediate effect on your mood. It doesn’t have to be big, you can start by saying hello or call a loved one. If you need some extra inspiration, here are 65 acts of kindness ideas!
- Get up early. When you’re getting up early, you get to do the things that are most important to you. If you’re thinking; this can’t be done, YES you can! Even without coffee! Just put your alarm clock an hour early from now on and work on your personal goals.
- Stop comparing yourself to others. We’re wired to compare ourselves continually to others. If you’re being motivated by that, good for you to keep going. If you’re being discouraged by it, stop comparing yourself to others and focus on playing your own game.
- STOP with having regret. Regret is a hard emotion to deal with. The situation is already over, there is nothing you can do about it at this point, but you wish you did things differently. All your life experiences and decisions are contributing to where you are at this moment in your life. Learn from your experiences and don’t call them regret.
- You are in control! Lastly, remember that you are in control. It’s your life! If you’re unhappy about something currently going on in your life, try and change your situation.
Do you believe in the power of being positive? Why (not)?
Marjolein is a financial consultant who has built over €4,000 monthly passive income and saves over 70% of her income. Read Radicals’ inspiring story, from stuck in the 9-to-5 to loving life. Feel free to send Radical a message at the bottom of this page
Hi M, inspiring post as usual! Turning negativity in positive energy is currently one of my biggest struggle. Negative thoughts are subtle and often there is not a “negative voice” that precisely talks in my mind, but a simple “negative idea” that is enough to mess up the best intentions throughout the day. Your hints are very useful to keep on track towards a positive attitude. Bookmarked 🙂
That is very true – it’s easy to pay too much attention to that ‘negative idea’ and it’s hard to move past it. Happy that you found the article useful and thanks for reading!