“The thought manifests as the word; The word manifests as the deed; The deed develops into habit; And habit hardens into character.” – Ancient Proverb
Are you struggling to master your mindset? Success boils down to the way you think, as the proverb suggests. More and more research is supporting the power of positivity.
We create the reality around us, and by taking steps to be more positive, we can master our own domain.
Mastering Your Thoughts
A recent study conducted by the Journal of Research in Personality examined a group of 90 students split into two groups. One group wrote about a positive experience each day for three days, while the other group wrote about a control topic.
Three months later, the students who wrote about positive experiences enjoyed better moods, fewer visits to the school health center and fewer illnesses.
Start Keeping a Gratitude Journal and Record Five Things to be Grateful for Each Day.
So how do you harness the power of positivity? By expressing gratitude. As you keep a journal, being grateful for the abundance of good in your life will come more naturally. This “glass half full” mentality has been proven to foster happiness and success.
Get Enough Exercise
150 minutes of exercise a week is one of the most effective ways to boost your mental health. Getting regular exercise improves memory, relieves stress, boosts overall mood and helps you sleep better. https://health.gov/
Schedule Genuine Personal Time Into Your Life
You schedule conference calls, meetings and other responsibilities into your daily calendar, why not schedule personal time where you can grow as a person? Block out an hour on your calendar to work on a secret project, explore or experiment. Seriously, carve out the time to have fun, and build new skills and explore.
Mastering Your Words
Develop a level of self-insight by taking notice of the words you frequently use. Are they positive, empowering words, or are they mostly negative? If they are negative, are you catastrophizing? An example of this is when you say to yourself “if I don’t get this report in on time it will be terrible.” Is turning in a late report the worst thing in the world that could happen?
Mastering Your Habits
Just like you can incorporate positive thoughts and words into your life, you can incorporate positive habits, like meditation. Recent researchreveals that people who meditate daily display more positive emotions than people who don’t. Meditating also helps to develop long-term skills. It leads to mindfulness, purpose in life, decreased illness, and social support.
Another positive habit to consider is awareness. Sit down and ask yourself the hard questions. What do you want? What needs to be changed in order to do this?
Mastering Your Character
Giving back will contribute to a positive mindset. Harvard Business Review research determined that people who volunteer feel like they have more time. Similar research shows that people who donate to charity feel wealthier.
Volunteering helps you develop new skills. In fact, skills-based volunteering is a prime opportunity to develop talent that will help you get ahead in your career. As if this weren’t enough, volunteering leads to better health, according to Corporation for National and Community Service. Volunteers have lower mortality rates and lower rates of depression later on in life.
The positive mentality isn’t just some pop culture trend. Incorporating positivity into your life and embracing it will lead you to success in many ways. Indeed, a positive mindset is a mastered mindset.
This guest post is courtesy of Kavita Sahai. She is the CEO and Founder of Have BIGplans, LLC, which virtually, conveniently and affordably connects entrepreneurs with certified business coaches. As the first-ever text business coaching platform, Have BIGplans has revolutionized the business coaching industry by providing unparalleled dialog between certified business coaches and small business owners in the digital age.
About Have BIGplans, LLC
