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We all know that person who: never misses a beat, never has an off-day, is always full of energy and constantly has a smile on their face. A positive attitude is a core personality trait for happy, successful, decisive people and it’s an approach anybody can learn to adopt.
6 min read
What’s more, people who exude a positive attitude tend to live longer than their Eeyore impersonating counterparts. So perhaps it’s time to make like James Cordon and Eric Idle on The Late Late Show and “Always look on the bright side of life.”
For more advice on how to adopt the attributes of the elite professional check out our top 12 here.
Adopting a positive attitude to life brings a whole host of benefits both professionally and personally. So here’s our 6 secrets to becoming a positive powerhouse with a magnetic personality that everybody is attracted to.
1. Smile
2. Surround yourself with positive people
3. The silver linings
4. Use positive words
5. Stay fresh
6. Embrace the stress
Ready to get your positivity on?
1. Smile
As the legendary Nat King Cole sang, “you'll find that life is still worthwhile, if you just smile”. And he wasn’t wrong, in fact science has now shown that smiling can: lift your mood, lower stress, boost your immune system and possibly even prolong your life.
Smiling causes chemical reactions in your brain that increase the production of Dopamine and Serotonin – the feel-good hormones. These hormones help to increase happiness and decrease stress. It’s far easier to be positive when your body is promoting your happiness with the chemicals being released into your bloodstream.
What’s even more interesting is: the human brain isn’t bothered whether it’s a genuine smile or not! Smiling can actually trick your brain into thinking you’re happy. By faking a smile, you can genuinely reduce stress levels and lower your heart rate.
Try setting a goal for yourself each day to make someone smile. Not only will this help to increase your own positivity but improve the wellbeing of others leading onto our next point…
2. Surround yourself with positive people
Positivity is contagious. Possibly the best way to keep yourself on top of your game is to surround yourself with people that keep you upbeat.
If you spend enough time with people you find uplifting and intellectually stimulating, you’ll find you’ll see the world in a completely different way.
There's a theory that you become like the five people you spend the most time with. Whether you like it or not you’ll be hugely influenced by those you spend the most time with, whether that be in: self-confidence, enthusiasm or commitment for example.
An audit of those you spend the most time with, both professionally and personally, can help massively in adopting a more positive approach. Are those closest to you embracing the same philosophies as you? Are you inspired and enthused by them? Do they uplift and motivate you? If the answer is no to any of these perhaps you should consider including fresh faces in your life and build a more positive outlook.
3. The silver linings
You should always try to look for the Silver Linings. It doesn’t matter how bad a situation gets there will always be some way in which you can take a positive from it.
As the saying goes “what doesn't kill you makes you stronger”, and this couldn’t be any truer when it comes to a positive attitude. Being able to look objectively at a bad situation and see the positives where you have: learnt, grown and developed, is an awesome way to maintain that positive approach in the face of adversity.
Life is made up of tiny victories – the little things. If you can keep those small wins in the forefront of your mind when facing a difficult time, you’ll be able to look at the bigger picture and maintain your great mindset.
4. Use positive words
Mother Theresa once said that "kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless." Now this may sound a little corny, but words have much more power than you realise.
If you describe your life using negative and pessimistic words such as: undervalued, unmotivated and unheard, then you will more than likely see it that way and consequently experience the psychological and physiological consequences. However if you were to look for the silver linings (as mentioned above), describing yourself using positive words such as: driven and friendly, you’ll see your life in a completely different way.
5. Stay fresh
American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, entrepreneur and fashion designer Kanye West might be onto something when he said “I love sleep; it's my favourite.” Now we can’t promise that more sleep will deliver you your own line of trainers or the most consecutive studio albums to debut at number one on the Billboard 200, but more sleep should help improve your health and wellbeing. And we all know a healthy and prosperous person is a positive one.
Now we have all felt that feeling when we haven’t had enough sleep or food and we can’t concentrate, and we find our patience running just a little thin. Well there may be a little more to getting a good night’s sleep than you think.
Your brain interprets a lack of sleep as a threat to the central nervous system which can impair your judgment. According to Shawn Achor, author of the book Before Happiness, missing just one night of sleep can cause you to remember 59 percent fewer positive words, which could make you overly focus on the negative. If you’re well fed and well rested you should be in a better position to approach life in a more balanced and positive manner.
6. Embrace the stress
Sounds like madness, right? Well it might not actually be as daft as it sounds.
Now the harmful consequences of stress are well documented such as: irritability, anxiety, depression, headaches and insomnia; however the short-term benefits can be useful.
The hormones that are released into your body during stressful situations are able to boost your memory and cognitive reasoning ability. This is all part of the ‘Fight or Flight’ response, preparing your body to perform at super-human levels.
If stress is embraced and the fact that there are benefits kept in mind, it can be possible to harness the positives and reduce the negatives of stress. In one study, managers who were trained to recognize the benefits of stress reported a 23 percent drop in physical symptoms like headaches, backaches, and fatigue.
By approaching stress not as a bad thing but as a hugely powerful tool that you can use to make you: smarter, more energetic, healthier, more focussed and more confident, you can smash through those negative thoughts and maintain a positive attitude even in stressful situations!
Conclusion
Winston Churchill once said, “attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.” And when it comes to embodying a positive attitude, this couldn’t be more accurate.
A positive attitude will not only help you to achieve both professional and personal success but bring numerous other benefits as a side effect.
So try to: smile more, surround yourself with positive people, see the silver linings, use positive words, stay fresh and embrace the stress to live your best life with your positive attitude.
