@SmallFishMedia asks about ‘”How To Be More Positive On A Daily Basis”
What a great question and one I never expected to write about here at ProBlogger – it’s a little off topic but as I was asked it – here goes.
Firstly, I’m no expert on being positive. I’m a bit of an optimist (my wife complains that I can turn any situation into a positive one) though and like to be around other positive people.
For me it comes down to a few things. The first is being intentional about finding the positive things in your life. My parents taught me to be thankful and when I don’t feel thankful to find things to be thankful for anyway and to ‘practice being thankful’. Just like you don’t become good at anything without practice, sometimes being positive is something you need to learn to do and practice. Start with the small things – tell others about the, pray about them (if that’s your thing) but look for them and celebrate them in some way.
The second thing I’d say is to learn to turn problems into opportunities. My Marketing lecturer used to challenge us when we did projects to identify our weaknesses in business and turn them into strengths and to turn our threats into opportunities. This is somewhat counter intuitive but it’s a powerful thing when you do it right.
What do you think? Positivity can be an great thing to have as a blogger – how do you keep yourself thinking positively?
I think it’s a good thing to be positive. But don’t let it get to your head. Being positive all the time can let you lose your guard.
I do think being positive should be important for a blog. I doubt many people feel like updating their blog when they’re trudging through sorrow and despair. I always see the funny side of things, and the time that I am ever sad are few and far. Nothing makes me more productive than being high on life!
Hi everyone..
I remember since my first schooling days, my dad always said “think positive”. But at that time, I just said a blind ‘yes’ without really any thought about it. But as time passes, it is no doubt that keeping a positive mind, and hence a positive though, will help you with good constructive and creative energy, will and motivation in whatever you do.
But to sustain positive thinking, is not always a simple task considering the pace with which life is going on. But once again, as my dad says, if you train yourself to think positive, you will find it as a faithful friend in your journey.
Warm wishes,
– Wakish –
Thanks for answering my question Darren, I know you are not in the ‘personal development’ niche, but you always sound very positive and informative when you are doing your video posts – so I just couldn’t miss out on the opportunity to ask you the question. Your posts are always very positive (optimistic) and I guess that is why I asked you about it. Your answer is very good and it has certainly provided me with a few pointers that I should practice in my everyday life.
Being thankful is something that many of us bloggers can very easily forget. It’s not something that we are too accustomed to doing – despite the fact that we say thank you to people, it always seems to fall back on being a common courtesy thing. But you should add a little bit after the thank you and tell the person something like, thank you – I really appreciate it. In Australia it would probably be something more like ‘Thanks Buddy, You’re A Legend.’ – means the same thing.
At any point in time, when you are feeling particularly sad, upset or down about something – just take a look around you. You are probably sitting down in a room, with walls around you, with the comfort of windows or blinds to block out the sun. You might even have the heater or the air conditioning going, maybe a couple of lights on – and you’re typing on the computer…and yeah – there’s that thing which your computer sits on, a desk. A few other bits and pieces of furniture here and there, and the ability to communicate with the world. Be thankful…
That you have the opportunity to be able to avail yourself such luxuries in life – things that people in less developed nations could only wish for. Look at it, reflect upon this, and maybe even make a donation. You are truly lucky to be where you are, and you shouldn’t go into a rut because you can’t think about something to post, or that your blog is not expanding as quick as you want it to – these are luxuries, and as with everything else, we should value them…and P.S. – it takes time for blogs to grow.
The worst thing you want to do is take a negative stance when you are blogging. Having a negative attitude towards your writing will have an impact on your readers – yes, it may bring in the few extra comments; but you may also risk losing some readers – when people come to read about something, they probably have problems of their own that breed negativity, they don’t want to find it in a blog post they are reading. Thanks again Darren for a great answer, just added a few of my rants.
I am just writing a post on the importance on being positive when it comes to creating wealth. So this post is great. Thanks Darren
Great subject
Even with the greatest blogware available, and dynamite content,and thousands of repeat readers you can bring down the whole audience in a very short time if you have veiled and not-so-veiled negativity.
We are on the internet for enjoyment. If it becomes a drag to go to read a blog very soon you will quit going there.
Positive attitude will bring the people and will keep the people.
We attract that which we believe. Thinking positive throughout the 10 years of being in business and 2 years of blogging has made a huge impact on my business. As a matter of fact, there is a company coming to film a documentary about my company’s success this week from New York because they are so impressed with our success. When you think positive incredible things can happen!
Looking at the good aspects of a bad situation is the key to become positive and successful. If you really look at your life, the great achievements that you have made are during the years of hardship. When things were running smooth (as usual), your progress would have been Not that great. This is my personal view; do you folks agree?
I do think it’s important to generally be more positive than negative in blogging. If I think back to the blogs that I’ve unsubscribed from – they’re predominately written with a negative tone.
I believe the first and the foremost thing is one’s mindset. If you can control your mindset and think that you can win (not just win) then one will definitely have a positive and yes this will also help to send positive vibes and mindset to the people around oneself as well.
Being positive will be more helpful then not being positive when writing a blog.
I wrote a post that compliments what Darren is saying here. You can check it out by going to:
http://themaskedmillionaire.com/2008/04/20/100-belief-in-what-your-doing.aspx
The point is that you can be what you want to be. If you want to be positive you can be. If you wan to be negative you can be that also.
How to be more positive: ACT more positive! You often feel whatever you let yourself feel.
If you’re constantly complaining about bad situations, it just makes them worse. But if you take everything with a smile or laugh things off, that does wonders for your mentality (and productivity, and content, etc…)
The best way to feel positive is to do things that are worth feeling positive about. It’s not easy, but at least you’re not lying to yourself. You will not have to “try” to be positive.
And there is a time and place to feel down and be okay with that. We all experience that. That’s life.
I think we can apply this to a recent definition I heard about being “disciplined.” Discipline is about leaving yourself no other option. So… you could say… being positive is a discipline!
Doyle Slayton
Executive Director & Sales Strategist
http://www.SalesBlogcast.com
Hi Darren,
I stay positive by feeding my mind with the positive daily – whether that’s through reading books, daily motivational emails I receive, listening to one of my motivational tape series, or meditating, I find that I need to do something to feed my mind the good stuff everyday. It’s just like exercise for the body, but instead this is positive food for the mind.
**I’m glad to hear you tell us about your optimistic outlook on life – I never thought of you as being a negative person but it’s neat to hear about your mindset.
I feel positivity flows from passion. If one is passionate about something, it would take a lot to discourage them. No matter how hard the going.
Of course, as you said, no situation can be entirely negative. Positivity, like a lot of other things, shows itself when one is looking for it. :)
Personally I think it depends on the type of blog you are editing.
For the one I publish supporting a parents basic human right to have a choice in the education of their child(ren) in Germany, it is about keeping the end goal in mind. Focusing on the outcome and imagining what that would be like keeps one positive despite the knock-backs and contrary government actions.
For another blog though, its authenticity is in sharing the positives and the negatives – it is about being real. Sometimes I think that there are too many ‘phony’ people out there only putting their best foot forward and that can cause another to stumble.
So it depends on what type of focus yours has.
To be more positive you can:
Act positive, think positive, smile positve, speak positive, percieve positive, dream positive, and then you would automatically become more positive.
Of course this would spill over into your writing, causing all your readers to be more positive.
I think having a positive attitude is very important for a blogger to have. As Jim said above, you can easily bring down your audience with negative posts. I catch myself doing this sometimes with my customer service blog – everyone has a bad story to share in this area!
Everyday when I wake up I count my blessings…That always puts me in a positive mood ;)
Get this book, “The Power of Positive Thinking” by Norman Vincent Peale.
It changed my life!
Thinking positively will certainly impact our lives and is far better than not.
But where to find the power of that type of thought is found beyond the thinking mind. One minute of silence, not around us, but inside us, can energize and vitalize our being like none other.
Mind you, a good walk with Ginger (my golden) or ice cream helps!
Perhaps, in the constant moments when decisions are called for – we ask ourselves the simple question – happy or crappy, the CHOICE is yours.
I’m a natural optimist. I see and acknowledge the sadness and agony out there in the world but prefer to focus on the brighter things. (It’s one of the reasons you’ll never find me watching a horror film.) It just seems to be a healthier way to live your life–do what you can to make things better (or at least, not worse) and not worry about the things you can’t fix. My mother’s a natural worrier, and can never get her mind out of that “What if” rut, and I see how it weighs her down. Life is too short to worry about what you can’t change.
What a great post and comments!
For me, on another post here, several people made comments about a comment I made – one of them started similar to: “Sorry to break your heart, but…..”
The thing for me is, it has never been about pleasing others, but about what gets me in my comfort zone, professionally, personally and religiously. Sometimes that is making others happy, sometimes it is doing things against the grain and sometimes it is being ridiculed or otherwise degraded.
The thing is – all the little things can make a different – catching a nice view of the Rocky Mountains on my way to work, when the sun hits them just right pretty much makes the day good, no matter what happens. When we miss things like that, we start losing positive outside of the computer and it all goes downhill.
I think being positive is a very important thing, especially when you’re blogging.
The reason I don’t read papers or watch or listen to the news anymore is because it makes me feel bad. 90 percent of the news that is brought to us is negetive, sad and depressing. I like to pick my own news sources and choose the ones with a positive attitude and feeling!
How? As yourself, remembering to be thankful for all of the small things, and tiny steps of progress. Remembering that nothing remains static, helps through those phases where it seems as though little is happening. And! I meditate a few minutes each day to clear my mind of any worrying, angry, or negative thoughts.
As a technical writer, I’m not able to use humor in my professional writing. So I try to keep positive by using humor in my personal blog to describe bad situations and my attempts at fixing them.
As soon as I saw this question, I thought “he’s going to get a lot of hits on this one”! Looks like I was right! :-)
One thing I heard a long time ago, and try to practice is this:
When you go to bed at night, right before you go to sleep, think of 3 good/great things that happened to you that day. It doesn’t have to be monumental things, it could just be the fact that you didn’t burn dinner, or you heard a bird sing in a particularly beautiful way.
Part 2 of this tip is that when you first wake up in the morning, think of 3 things in your life that you’re thankful for. Again, it can be anything, think big or small, like being thankful for waking to see another day, having a roof over one’s head, family members, the cup of tea you’re about to have, etc. It really gets you in a positive frame of mind and starts the day off right.
Still working on that blog of mine…. any day now… stay tuned… :-)
Wow, I think this is such an important topic for bloggers. One of the things I’ve noticed (anecdotally, of course, don’t know if there’s stats out there) is that often “snarky” blogs are the ones that get the most hits. I think the relative anonymity of the internet makes people feel justified in being a bit more sarcastic or crass than they are in other mediums, and then they feed off each other till you’ve just got a big jumble of negative energy. I for one REALLY appreciate a positive, thoughtful, optimistic blogging voice; I don’t like to hang out with crabby people in real life, so why should I do it online?
You get positive when you block all the negative thoughts and fears out of your mind and focus on what you have and what you can do the best out of it like thats the only solution available. And when you start feeding everything positive in your mind, you believe in it and then things start to change.
Remember “Napoleon Hill”.
One of the powerful ways to be positive.
“Whether you believe you can or whether you believe you can’t, you are right.”
Henry Ford
Being positive is the key to life. When you focus on the possibilities of tomorrow, you can create your future. When you dwell in the past you are just accepting failure. Check out “I feel good, I knew that I would.”
http://hoomancan.com/blog/?p=21