Smart Living Rule 3 – Be Positive, Optimistic and Enthusiastic

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• Tags: Enthusiasm, gratitude, Happiness, optimistic, positive, thinking

What is your attitude toward life?

Maintaining a positive, optimistic and enthusiastic attitude is smart living.  Your attitude largely defines your actions.  Your actions decide the results you get.

A pessimistic sourpuss rarely sees any good in life.  They are constantly focused on the negative so negative is all they get.  They don’t see the silver lining in circumstances that come their way because their eyes are only trained to see the downside.

Choosing a positive, optimistic and enthusiastic outlook on life opens up a whole new world of possibility.  It enables you to be happier and to see brilliant opportunities that were hidden before.  It unlocks a great life and is truly smart living!

What does a positive attitude and optimism look like?

Positive thinking and optimism is the state of mind where you expect favorable results.  You get up in the morning believing this is going to be a good day.  You regularly think life is full of opportunity, prosperity and expansion.

I think of myself as a pretty positive person and maybe you do too.  However, negativity creeps in on us in ways that is hard to detect at first.

I challenge you to monitor your thinking for a few days.  Make a mental note every time that you catch yourself thinking a negative thought.  This includes noticing the little voice in your head that is critical of yourself and others.

I’ve done this and it amazed me at just how many times a day I caught myself going off down a negative trail.  This kind of thinking has to take its toll.  After all, whatever you think on the inside manifests itself on the outside.  We have to choose positivity and optimism!

This appears easier for some than it is for others.  There are those people that are positive and enthusiastic all the time.  They are often the ones we call “the morning people”.

We’ve all seen or worked with them.  A positive and cheery attitude seems to come easy for them.  I wonder though are they naturally this way or are they taking conscious steps to maintain their positive attitude?

It may be a little of both, but this is good news because it means a choice exists.  We really can make ourselves more positive and optimistic with just a little effort.  Personally, I’ve been amazed at how little effort it actually takes.

I’ll share with you some of the things I do to maintain a positive attitude in just a moment, but first let’s talk about how enthusiasm leads to smart living.

Using enthusiasm for smart living

Enthusiasm is contagious.  It sweeps people up and into your cause.  It motivates people to think and act like a team. 

Don’t you want to be enthusiastic about what you are doing?  Well, instead of waiting for the “right thing” to be enthusiastic about, why not be enthusiastic about what you are already doing?  Enthusiasm will create new results that can transform any situation to something better.

Use enthusiasm to lift your current pursuits to a whole new level.  Create a vivid vision for a great future doing whatever it is that you do today and then use enthusiasm to fire everyone else up about it too!

You have two choices.  One is to be mild and mediocre or the other is to be enthusiastic and remarkable!  Which one will you choose?

Assignment: Learn to be more positive, optimistic and enthusiastic!

With each of my smart living rules, I have been offering assignments to help you explore the rule further. 

Here are the assignments for this smart living rule:

1.  Gather ideas on how to be more positive, optimistic and enthusiastic

Having a better attitude is a choice.  You do not have to continue to be buffeted by your circumstances.  It has taken me several years, but I am slowly but surely learning the truth in this statement.  Start finding ways to choose to be more positive by reading the articles below:

• The Science of Happiness: How To Get The Most Out Of Life
• The Vast, Unstatable Importance of a Positive Attitude
• 11 Steps to a More Positive You 
• Top 10 Tips for Maintaining a Positive Attitude
• 15 Proven Tactics to Fire Up Enthusiasm

2.  Take steps to increase your positivity, optimism and enthusiasm

There are several ways that you can help yourself to be more positive.  It really is a choice you make every day.  You decide your thoughts, actions and reactions.  Of course, there are some techniques available to help.

Not all these tips, steps or methods work for everyone.  You will likely find that some work better than others for you.  I’ve given you several resources above that list ideas to try.  Here are a few that I’ve found useful:

1. Maintain a gratitude journal – We overlook and forget about hundreds of good things that happen to us every single day.  Keeping a gratitude journal will help you stay positive because it reminds you of all the good things you having going for you.
2. Read positive, uplifting material – Stop watching and reading the news!  It is all negative.  Instead, start reading positive, uplifting and inspiring material.  Our minds are like computers.  Garbage-in, garbage-out.  Choose to be positive!
3. Feed your emotional bank account – To be positive, optimistic and enthusiastic, you must be emotionally strong and healthy.  You must take care of yourself.  You must tend to your own emotional bank account.  Celebrate the small victories in your life with a treat, a day off or a special night out on the town!

These are just a few of the ways that I work to keep myself positive, optimistic and enthusiastic.  They may or may not work for you.  My advice is to find what does work best for you and use it religiously!

Smart living is being positive, optimistic and enthusiastic!

You can accomplish so much more of what you value in life by being positive, optimistic and enthusiastic!  Adopting and fostering these attitudes is smart living.  Use them to open your eyes to all kinds of new opportunities that are just waiting for you to claim!

Follow this link to discover all the rules for Smart Living.

Photo by Syma Sees