Positive State of Mind | How To Actually Make It A Habit In 2017 And Achieve More!

Positive thinking can be a b*tch. I know that. Sometimes we are just too frustrated or burnt out. Then, we fail to see the positive side of things. In this 7 minute read I want to make progress in this. If you stay with me, you will be rewarded. If not, I’ll make it worth your time. Here is my take:

To convince you that a positive state of mind is beneficial, I could just quote research on how optimistic people are healthier. But you and I know that this won’t help anyone. You and me, we are here for some actionable advice. Tricks and Stories, some publicly available, some kept secret. So let’s dive into this!

Limbos like hell

Let’s start in a situation where you’re unhappy. After all, you want to see how to escape this destructive limbo. The crucial word is REFRAMING. As you noticed, we cannot predict life. Unfortunate things will happen, so the key lies not in trying to avoid these but to develop a toolset to benefit from these situations.

In this context, PROFIT is the important word. To find new motivation and promote a positive state of mind we have to rewire our brain. We have to look out for a way to profit of these situations. No matter how bad the situation. Here is the disturbing thing about our brain: It takes three positive experiences to level out one equally bad. In the next paragraph, we want to work on improving this 3:1 ratio.

To find benefits and to reframe our emotions towards a situation, we have to step up our detective game. Yes, that’s right, awake your inner Sherlock Holmes. If you, like me, on the other hand, love The Pink Panther your inner Inspector Clouseau. From now on, when you’re unhappy about a situation or its outcome ask yourself the following questions for a new perspective on the matter:

1. What is the opportunity from this situation?

2. What matters for me right now?

3. What could I learn from this moment? (My favourite one!)

4. What do my heart and gut say?

5. What can you do right now to achieve the most desirable outcome in the current situation?

Well, all these are easy to claim in Reddit post with nothing else to show Joshua. How do I know this works? Alright, you got me. So let’s look at some examples while you get to know me better:

Like you, I too had quite a few ups and downs in the last year. I started off with bankrupting my start-up Polletize by failing to attract investors or secure an incubator place with my partner. I was tremendously devastated with most of my work from 2015 being flushed down the toilet. As this was already a huge blow my next project, a website to simulate macroeconomic models was trashed by my university professors and even the respectable Prof. Dr Blanchard Illing. As you’d expected, both of these failures pulled me down quite a bit at first. But by shifting my view towards the things I’ve learnt and the positive things like new contacts, new ideas and even new business leads I can now safely say that these events and all the other bullshit that happened in 2016 always brought a reward. Although it sometimes is tough to find, looking out for benefits will also yield a boost in motivation.

If you find a way to be happy in your current situation, you can look back on all the bad things, all the times you failed and tell yourself that it’s a good thing that they happened because otherwise, you wouldn’t where you are now! So keep an open mind and don’t let anything knock you down. Look on the bright side of things! You will experience obstacles, and you will make mistakes. Accept this, be ready, and move on.

Remember

“It’s not the load that breaks you, it’s the way you carry it.” — Lou Holtz​

Side Note

“People with goals succeed because they know where they are going…it’s as simple as that.” —Earl Nightingale​

The point I want to bring across in this side note is this: It is easier for you to measure your progress every day, as incremental as it might be if you have well-defined goals and have mapped out a few steps along the way on how to reach it. If you have trouble with this, feel free to shoot me a message or reply below so we can start together doing the first steps in the right direction.

The Important Outro

So now you went through my whole post and are probably wondering one of two things.

1. This is solid advice, and I’ll try it out. But I have questions on how to relate this tactic to my everyday life.

That’s obviously immaculate and an immense step towards your goals and new motivation. Regarding your question, I’ll be happy to answer every single one down below. Yes. Every. Single. One.

2. I’m taking this with a grain of salt since I don’t know a lot about the author, so I’m not sure how I feel taking advice from him.

This is perfectly fine. But let me help you with this. After all, if a small “about the author” paragraph and answering your hardest questions will validate my advice above I’m more than happy to do so.

A bit about my person

I’m Joshua, 22 years old and in the last year I’ve not only failed with Polletize and Painless Economics but also went on this rollercoaster called the stock market, first with substantial gains and ultimately losing 70% of my investments. Funny thing, the stock ticker which lost me the most money is accurately called WFT… With my failures, big or small compared to your path I hope to improve the state of mind of other people sometimes struggling to identify benefits.

I’ve always been into self-improvement, goal setting and finding ways for new motivation. I started gaining interest in these matters during my time in a student organisation where I had the opportunity to visit multiple conferences and trainings with these things as core subjects. I know I’ve been lucky to find these powerful opportunities. That’s why I’ve opted to share the key findings in these articles and with my start-up Alium which you should check out if you think this article is not complete bullsh*t.

Your Turn!

Ask the questions spinning around in your head! Share what you might do differently because ultimately everybody here will profit from your opinion. I’ll stay here to answer all questions, with only 22 years old I should’ve plenty of time to do so!

Best Regards,
Joshua