Having a positive attitude can make a huge difference in how you overcome your personal and professional hurdles on an everyday basis. It will enable you to develop inner strength and keep moving ahead despite the adversities you encounter. By nurturing an optimistic outlook, you will be more likely to achieve professional success and personal happiness. In this article, we will discuss how to keep a positive attitude, why it is important and provide some examples of positive attitude.

Why is it important to keep a positive attitude?

It is important to keep a positive attitude as it will enable you to better deal with the setbacks that you will inevitably encounter in your personal and professional life. Hard times come to everyone, but the attitude you take towards them dictates whether you will emerge stronger or weaker from the experience.

How to keep a positive attitude

You can find various creative ways to keep a positive attitude. Here are a few suggestions:

1. Be kind to yourself

To develop and retain a positive attitude, you must learn to be kind to yourself. Every time you find yourself indulging in too much self-criticism, make a conscious effort to stop. Change the language you use to describe yourself and your life.

Instead of describing yourself as dull and your job as boring, think of yourself as an interesting personality with a fun job that has many fascinating facets. Spend some time in self-reflection and remind yourself of the many good qualities, talents and skills you have and the many benefits your job brings you. It will make you feel better about yourself and also make you look forward to going to work.

2. List the good things in your life

Keep a daily diary and fill it with the things that you are grateful for every day. Even if you decide to write just five things, you will be surprised with the shift in attitude it brings and how many wonderful and inspiring things you have in your life. Just returning home to spend time and share meals with your family is something incredibly worthwhile. By consciously acknowledging the good things you have, you will be able to better handle stressful and unpleasant issues.

3. Work on improving yourself

Assess your skills and talents and ask yourself what you need to do to improve them and if you need to learn new skills. Set daily achievement goals for yourself and test your limits. Trying to do better every day will boost your confidence and prepare you for handling more challenging tasks.

How do you maintain a positive attitude in stress?

You can maintain a positive attitude in stressful situations in the following ways:

1. Step back and focus on your long-term goals

It is easy to get overwhelmed and agitated when you are under stress. The best thing you can do in such a situation is to take a few deep breaths and step back. Instead of concentrating on the small details, try to shift your perspective and focus on your end goal. Remind yourself that the issues that bother you are quite negligible in the larger scheme of things. Your disagreement with your boss in the workplace, for instance, is nothing in comparison to the happy and supportive family life you have.

2. Eat healthily and get sufficient rest

Your lifestyle plays a significant role in how you cope with stress. If you eat healthy meals on time and in moderation and get at least nine hours of uninterrupted sleep every night, you are likely to feel refreshed and energetic enough to tackle anything that comes your way. You will be able to think clearly and be less likely to be beset by anxiety and self-doubt.

3. Spend some time with nature

Spending a few minutes or hours in natural surroundings can do wonders for rejuvenating your spirits. Go for a long walk under the trees, sprint across a sandy beach or sit quietly on a park bench and contemplate the flowers and the greenery. It should help relieve your stress.

4. Engage in a fun pastime

Cultivating the hobbies that you enjoy is another way to relieve your stress. You can also pick up a new hobby, such as gardening, sewing, painting, drawing or music. Alternatively, you can revive and engage in your old hobbies.

5. Talk to other people

Talk to family members, friends and neighbours. Tell them about the problems you are facing. It might help to relieve your stress. Also, they might surprise you with solutions that you never thought of before.

6. Offer to help somebody

Helping someone can bring about a positive change in their life and also make you feel better about yourself. It could also enable you to take a more realistic look at your issues. You might realise that these are not as bad as you assumed and that you can handle them capably.

What are examples of positive attitudes?

Here are some positive attitude examples:

• Having a resilient and uncomplaining spirit in the face of adversity and failure

• Cultivating the ability to focus on things that matter

• Maintaining personal honesty, honour and integrity

• Encouraging people around you to stay strong and do better

• Finding happiness in little things

• Being optimistic about the future

How can I change my attitude from negative to positive?

You can change your attitude from negative to positive by doing the following:

1. Act with a purpose

Instead of reacting automatically and mindlessly to the issues you encounter, try to step back and consider all the possible actions you could take. Ask yourself if a particular action will benefit your life and career. If it does not, avoid wasting your time and energy on that. Leave it and do something else that will produce the results you want.

2. Expand your limits

It is easy to develop a negative thought process if you limit yourself to doing what you have always done and refuse to take up new challenges. When you attempt something new, regardless of whether you succeed or not, you allow yourself to expand your limits and grow as a person. It will increase your confidence and help you to become more positive in your outlook.

3. Focus on actions, not results

If you want to stay positive, you should avoid expecting results when you take action. You should instead work towards achievements without expecting they will occur. Setting goals and acting towards them without expecting results will help you to stay positive even if you never reach those goals. If you do achieve a goal but did not assume the result was inevitable, your sense of accomplishment will be even greater.

4. Learn from setbacks

Setbacks happen to everyone at some point in their career. Instead of getting dejected over the failure, it will help to review and analyse what happened, find out what you did wrong and learn from your mistakes. Regard the setback as an opportunity to improve your work skills and performance.

5. Associate with positive people

The people you associate with daily and their behaviours can influence the way you feel, how you perceive things and how you behave. That is why you must associate yourself with people who bring a positive attitude to the workplace. For the sake of your well-being, limit your interactions with those who are negative, lazy, critical and unpleasant.

6. Cultivate humour

Do not take yourself too seriously and learn to laugh at yourself. It will make you and those around you feel more at ease. It will also make you feel lighthearted and happier and will help to create a happy workplace.

7. Understand everyone has limitations

Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. If you focus on people’s limitations, it can make it hard for you to stay positive while interacting with others. For instance, if you are working with someone on a project and they are not meeting expectations, it can easily impact your attitude in a negative way. Instead of focusing on your coworker’s shortcomings, try to find the good things they are doing and focus on those instead.

What is the key to a positive attitude?

The key to a positive attitude is to try and maintain an optimistic outlook in your everyday interactions and situations. It is also essential to cultivate and nurture a positive self-image. If you feel good about who you are and what you do, you are more likely to view your environment and the people you encounter in a positive light.