By Paul Kaye
PSR Contributor
Tuesday December the 22nd, 2015
The Importance of Positivity
The best performers are positive. They have a fundamentally positive outlook on life. They laugh and smile more, they bitch and whine less and they are better at dealing with change.
The law of attraction suggests that whatever you focus on most will create a frequency and attract back to your life what you are sending out. It’s a powerful concept. It doesn’t matter whether you are being positive or negative in your thoughts; the universe focuses on the emotions, thoughts and feelings you have and sends you more of them. If this law is true, why would we be thinking anything other than positively?
When you hear phrases like “have a positive attitude” it’s often accompanied with the image of some cheesy motivational speaker. The kind that makes your skin crawl. The concept of positivity sounds a little ‘out there’, but the benefits it can have for you and your performance are not something you should dismiss.
Sadly our brains are wired to be more negative than positive. Our minds react more strongly to negativity than they do positivity. This goes back to us as cave men and women; detecting danger was essential for our survival.
Negativity is emotionally draining. Think of the law of attraction again. If you send our negativity – if you think negatively – you’ll get more back. It’s a vicious circle that will consume you.
Why Positivity?
Having a positive attitude is important for many reasons:
- It helps you achieve your goals
- It enhances your levels of happiness
- Strengthens personal relationships
- Helps you become – and stay – motivated
- Gives you more mental and physical energy
- Not only helps you inspire yourself but those around you
- Lowers your stress levels
- Makes you more receptive to change
Adopting a more positive attitude isn’t that difficult. There is no intense training to undergo. You already have everything you need to achieve a more positive outlook. You simply need to be aware of your thoughts, your actions and your reactions. Once you have this awareness you are able to make the conscious choice to do whatever makes you feel good. It’s really that simple! Positivity is a choice.
In the book “Attitude is everything” the author recognizes that attitude does not emerge from what happens to you, but from how you decide to interpret what happens to you. You control how you feel about the event; that feeling is your attitude.
Here are some simple ways you can you get more positivity into your life…
- Positivity is a state of mind. It’s a choice you make. You need to commit to being positive. Having a positive outlook won’t eradicate negativity but you will become more tuned to spotting when negative thoughts are creeping in to your mind. You then want to dispel them quickly. Positive people are simply less tolerant of negativity, not free of it.
- Look for the silver lining in everything. When things don’t go the way we wanted it is easy to dwell in the negative. Instead look for the good in everything. Encourage yourself to look at the situation differently so you can find at least one lesson to take away from it. What did you learn from this? What will you do differently next time? Taking something from every moment helps build our capacity for positivity.
- Doubt is the devil. Doubt is a negative emotion. Once you let it take hold of you it has the power to be very destructive. You need to believe in yourself. Keep a watchful eye for when you are doubting yourself. Immediately stop yourself and take a moment to focus on your strengths. Recite them to yourself (in your head or aloud). Doubt will destroy positivity.
- Practice being positive. Some people see negativity as a bad habit. Something that you have learned over time. Kicking any bad habit is not easy, but if you practice and are persistent then you can succeed. You need to find ways to practice positivity in your life; journaling is one easy way of doing this; each morning when you wake up capture what you are grateful for. Ask yourself what would make today great. Then at the end of the day capture the 3 great things that happened today. Also, letting others know that you are thankful for their contributions is another simple way of being positive.
- Understand the science. Barbara Fredrickson’s research indicates that there is a 3:1 ratio for positivity. We need three more positive experiences to counteract one negative experience. You not only need to have these positive experiences but be consciously aware of them – if your mind doesn’t recognize these positive experiences it doesn’t count. The journaling approach mentioned above helps you to recognize the small – good – things that are happening to you.
- Remove whiners and complainers from your life. You know the people. They are the ones who always see the glass half empty. They think life is unfair to them. They think everyone is wrong or at fault. They are never satisfied. They talk about what’s wrong rather than how to make things better. These people hate to see other people be happy and satisfied. You need to distance yourself from these people – get as far away from them as you can!
- Replace negative language with positive language. Your words program your brain on how to think. Get rid of the negative phrases like “I can’t”, “I am not good enough” and “This won’t work” will set you up for negative results. Don’t use them. “I can”, “I am good enough” and “This is worth a try” would be the positive equivalents.
The key to building a positive mental attitude is making a commitment to seeing the best in people, situations and things; It’s about managing your emotions so that you avoid dwelling on those that will hold you back. There are lots of ways to achieve it. The hope with this article was to identify positivity as a key trait in successful people, to remind us that positivity is a choice and to offer some simple steps for moving towards more of it.
Positivity is a way of life. Positive people are more optimistic, inspiring, contagious, creative, enthusiastic, energized and most importantly happy!
A negative attitude says: “you cannot achieve success”. A Positive attitude says: “you can achieve success”
Be positive. Achieve success.
About Paul Kaye
Born in England, Paul got his first PD role in the early 2000s, making him the youngest programmer in the UK at the time. After nearly a decade programming in the UK Paul moved to Canada in 2012 to work for Newcap. Paul spends his days looking after stations in the CHR, Hot-AC and Classic Hits formats and also holds the role of National Talent Development Director for the company. A role that sees him working with morning shows, on air talent, and programmers across the country to improve performance. Paul lives in Vancouver and can be reached at
ka*******@ma**.com
Paul Kaye | National Director – Talent Development | Newcap Radio
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