Happy New Year!
Here we go. This is probably the most important tip of all, and one you can use throughout the year to help you cope with the new economy. Change your mind. Adjust your thinking. Adapt an abundance mentality. Look for the opportunities. Think about the positive things in your life. If you are spending lots of time thinking negatively you are ensuring that things in your life will stay negative. A huge windfall could come your way and you might not even notice it if you are focused on how bad things are. If you did notice, you might squander the opportunity due to your underlying negative outlook. Focus on the positive things in your life and things might just turn around.
Positive attracts positive and negative attracts negative
When you are down-and-out, feeling low and sad, angry that you cannot afford things, pointing your finger and blaming Wall Street for what they did to you, or focusing on the fact that they are still getting big bonuses while the rest of us struggle to make ends meet … you are giving the power to the negatives, the past, the loss, and the fools who got us here. Since that is over and nothing can change it (even your negative vibes) you are wasting your time and energy being there. When you are negative, you attract negative people and more negative thoughts, you get angrier, you shut down, and eventually it is nearly impossible for you to see anything positive.
How to Start
Today, right now, decide to concentrate on the positive things in your life over the negative things. Look for the possibilities in your future and the opportunities that are coming your way. This is not easy and it takes practice, but I can tell you it is well worth the effort.
Some people are familiar with seeing how bad things are. It’s normal for them to feel negative most of the time. I have a friend who is like this. When she calls, writes or emails, chances are about 90% that she will tell me about her physical problems, financial problems, family problems, the grim political outlook, and her many disadvantages in the world. She was not always like this, so she must have learned to think like this over the years. Now this negative thought pattern has worn a groove in her brain and she doesn’t remember how to think any differently. As bad as it probably feels for her to be so negative, this place – this groove – is comfortable for her because it is familiar. Don’t get me wrong, there are many negatives going on around us. Things are not all hunky dory. We are going through hard times. We certainly need to try to solve the negatives in our lives if we can; however, wallowing in them is not the solution.
If you choose to focus on the positive things in your life as well as the possibilities for your future, you will find that things in general don’t look so bad. When you train your mind to think this way, you are much more likely to take action to solve the negatives, seize opportunities when they arise, and successfully come out the other end of this economic mess. Think of it as a way to prepare for navigating the new decade.
Step One: Stop and Decide
The first step is to notice that you are thinking negatively. For me, this sometimes happens when my husband and I are discussing what has appeared in the morning newspaper or what we have seen on the TV news. It is hard to see anything positive in much of what is being covered – from drive-by shootings and child predators to the war, lousy economy, and public figures’ indiscretions. When I feel my emotions stirring, my blood pressure rising, negative thoughts gestating, angry words emerging from my mouth, and a big dark cloud moving in to obstruct what was to be a good day, I STOP and DECIDE I don’t want to go there. When you start to do this, you can see that it is your CHOICE to get sucked into a negative place – or not. The more I practice this, the easier it becomes.
Try this out for yourself. It is amazing what you can do once you know that you are in charge of your own thoughts. Who knew? Stay tuned for my next tip on January 8. See you then. Meanwhile, let me know how this tip is working for you. Here is a link to some resources if you want to read more about changing your mind.
