People often believe that being a positive or a negative person is something you are born with – you are either one or the other and you can’t change. But in most cases, they are wrong. This is just the attitude you choose to have. For instance, one person will strongly believe that they can get that job. Another person will strongly believe that they won’t get a job.
Which do you think gets it?
People adopt these attitudes as their own protective mechanisms. For a pessimist, it’s the comfort of knowing that you didn’t expect anything and you can’t be disappointed when you don’t get it. For an optimist, it’s believing that everything happens for a reason and that they can overcome it. At least, that’s how it’s supposed to be. But optimists and pessimist alike often mess up with their beliefs. Oh, and who got that job in the end, you wonder? The one who prepared the best.
Benefits Of Positive Thinking
Over the years, several studies have confirmed that Optimism has many health and societal benefits.
- Less stress
- Better coping mechanisms
- Higher levels of motivation
- More success in relationship
- Higher grades/lower numbers of dropouts
- More likely to commit to a healthy lifestyle
These are just some of the perks but certainly the most noted ones. However, it’s not always like this. Some people believe that all they need is a positive attitude – but this is a lie.
Optimistic people succeed because they believe that they can overcome any obstacle, accepting that it’s hard.
But there are those who believe that their dreams will come true and all it takes is to trust in that long and hard enough. Those people rarely ever succeed because they had it wrong from the beginning – they often say that everything will be easy and that success will come quickly. When it doesn’t, they get disappointed and stop working on their goals.
This is the biggest pitfall people face. It’s hard sometimes to be optimistic and accept the realistic parts at the same time. But if you can pull it off, there is no stopping you.
Benefits Of Negative Thinking
Some case studies have shown that negativity has certain adaptive and coping benefits.
People who were negative to begin with handled rejection and poor outcomes well – they didn’t expect much so they didn’t wallow when it didn’t happen for them.
This is the one side of negativity that proves to be useful time after time. But it’s mostly a protective mechanism that works in a strange way.
“Admittedly, there are some perks of being a negative person. But some people go overboard trying to get everyone to see the world the way they do. It’s uncomfortable and it gives negative people bad rep”, – says Myra Allonby, a blogger from OriginWritings.
Some say that people who think positively attract good things and that people who think negatively attract poor outcomes. This may be true.
However, it’s more about the fact that negative people believe that they will fail so they don’t put in as much effort.
The Best Way To Go
In the end, the best thing you can do for yourself is be optimistic about your outcomes but take on a realistic approach when it comes to handling obstacles.
Just being positive doesn’t work. What works is knowing that things will get hard and that you might even fail but trusting that with enough time and effort, you will succeed.
This approach is sometimes called realistic optimism and scientists strongly believe that most successful people take it on as their mantra. Find a positive side to everything. For instance, you failed – but you get to learn something and the next time you won’t. This is a good mechanism that will prove useful to any individual.
“You need to learn to embrace everything that comes for you and find the things that work while letting go of the stuff that doesn’t. Worries and negativity don’t amount to anything”, – says Geoff Mersea, a content writer from Writemyx and 1Day2write.
Be A Positive Person
Adopting this kind of attitude takes time. The first step is realizing that it’s not something you are born with but rather something you learn. Hopefully, these tips will help you become a more successful person.
Author’s bio:
Sherie Raymond works as an education writer and editor at Academic brits. She loves to write articles for online publications, namely in the educational and medical field. Sherie does yoga in her free time.
