7 Steps to Creating & Maintaining a Positive Attitude

You may have heard that a person’s attitude is very important when it comes to facing challenging situations, which life sometimes (or often) throws at us. A question that I propose to you is this; does your attitude define you, or do you define your attitude? Please have a think about that question before continuing to read the rest of this article.

So, here are my 7 Steps to Creating & Maintaining a Positive Attitude

1.) Know yourself – self awareness is one of the highest points in personal development. If you know yourself well, you will know how to create, control, and maintain a positive attitude in all areas of your life. What do I mean by self awareness? Self awareness is the art of being able to recognise and relate to your thoughts, feelings, and actions on a conscious level. What are your thoughts generally like? What are your feelings generally like? Do you respond to life’s events while using your self awareness, or do your react to life’s events? Constantly ask yourself “How can my thoughts and feelings serve me to empower my attitude?” Self awareness allows you to create and maintain an attitude that not only empowers you, it empowers others around you as well!

2.) Express more gratitude - the more grateful you are, the more positive your attitude will become! I have seen this time and time again, that grateful people are generally happier in life! Expressing gratitude on a regular basis is one of the keys to happiness. Look for opportunities to be more thankful in your every day life. Once you start looking for these opportunities, they will come to you in abundance. Even for the ‘small things’ in life, we must express gratitude! One of the simplest ways to express more gratitude is to make a gratitude list daily. I have asked all my coaching and mentoring clients to do this exercise; every morning, write down at least five (5) things that you are grateful for! I am yet to meet a client who did not have more than five (5) things on their list. Needless to say, I do this exercise every morning, otherwise I would be highly unlikely to recommend this to others. More gratitude means a more positive attitude!

3.) Encourage others more – by encouraging others, you encourage yourself in the process. If you look at the word ‘encouragement’, it contains the word ‘courage’. So, when you encourage someone, you are giving them a boost of courage. And this courage is coming from your own courage! This is a very empowering realisation indeed! While encouraging others, you are sharing your own courage with them! People love to be encouraged because it has a positive impact on their attitude. When you positively impact another person’s attitude, your attitude is also impacted positively. I believe that George Adams summed it up perfectly when he said “Encouragement is oxygen to the soul."

4.) Forgive (others and yourself) – forgiveness is freedom! Please imprint those words on your mind. When you forgive someone, you give yourself freedom. By forgiving, you are telling yourself that your attitude is allowing you to be free from resentment or bitterness that you had towards someone else. Forgiveness should also be directed towards yourself! Sometimes we tend to be hard on ourselves, and barely offer any forgiveness to ourselves. If we make mistakes, we should learn from our mistakes, and forgive ourselves. So, always be open to forgiving others and yourself in order to empower your attitude. If we allow a blockage (which could be released by forgiving) to hold ourselves back, our attitude will not grow and glow!

5.) Invest in your attitude – There are countless number of books, audio programs, and other learning materials available on the subject of attitude. Please invest in your attitude. This type of investment is priceless, and the ‘returns’ on these investments cannot be taken away from you, if you constantly apply what you learn! Creating an empowering and positive attitude may seem simple enough, maintaining it can be very challenging at times. That is why you must, you absolutely must continue to invest in your attitude. If you know of someone in your life who has an attitude that you wish to replicate, please ask them to share their ‘secret’ to creating and maintain their attitude. Most people with a positive attitude will be willing to support you in making your attitude more positive!

6.) Keep learning – Every event or person in your life teaches you something! Use these lessons to empower your attitude! There are lessons to be learnt in every step of the way, in life! These lessons are there to support your attitude. Keep asking questions such as “What did I learn from this experience? How will this experience enable me to boost my attitude?” If you feel that you did not handle an event or a circumstance in the way that you would have liked to, then make a list of what you could have done differently. Then, when the opportunity arises, apply the things that you wrote on your list. Self education is an ongoing process. It is your responsibility to keep learning about your attitude, and apply the lessons that you learn, to your attitude!

7.) Laugh more – Laughter can indeed be the best medicine. I have found that laughing has a very positive impact on our attitude. Instead of getting hung up on little things which cause you to become upset, you can laugh at them instead. In a year’s time, you may barely be able to remember the ‘little thing’ which could have caused you to feel upset or hung up. Some people sweat over the little stuff in life! If we learn to laugh at these, we will have an empowering effect on our attitude! Laughter puts you in a positive state, which implies that your attitude will also be impacted positively when you laugh! There are so many opportunities to laugh in life. Constantly look for these opportunities, and laugh along! Your attitude will thank you for laughing!

A positive attitude may not be the answer to every challenge that you face in life. However, it is an empowering start!
I sincerely hope that the above mentioned 7 Steps will serve you in creating and maintaining a positive attitude!

Inspiring you to achieve more,
Ron Prasad (Author, Speaker, Life Coach & Executive Coach)