Tag Archives: Focus
Focus on Goals – The Positive Psychology of Hope
My favorite Positive Psychological strength is HOPE. If you have high hopes you look down the road of your life and see lots of potential accomplishments. You know there will be hard times – even times you’ll want to give up. You are, however, confident that ultimately your abilities (and your ability to solve problems) will lead you to new and better things. Your goals make life exciting and interesting!
Contrast this with a person of no or low hopes. That person still has dreams and goals, but those goals cause anxiety and self-doubt instead of interest and excitement. That person looks down the road of life only to see potholes, detours, and dead ends. Often just thinking about all those obstacles is enough to make someone quit before they even start. Better to stay wherever you are, even if it’s stuck in the mediocre mire, than to start something that will be a lot of trouble and won’t work anyway!
Good News! Hopeful thinking is something you can acquire at any age. Some people learn it as children, but if you learned just the opposite in your childhood there’s still time to change your outlook. No matter what your family background, your money “issues”, your education (or lack thereof) – you can raise your level of hope and look towards a more exciting future. Keep in mind I didn’t say it was easy – there are old habits of thinking and living that are safe and comfortable. Some of these old standbys will have to go. They will not go quietly.
Hope is active. Hope involves setting goals and finding ways to accomplish those goals. Sometimes it requires finding different ways if one path turns out to be a dead end. Hope also involves a driving energy force that keeps moving you towards your goal. You need the power of both your will and your creative ways. This is interesting – hope does not depend upon achieving your goal 100% of the time. All you need is a little taste of success along the way as you practice. Those little victories keep the feeling of hope building inside you.
Hope can be measured and hope can be taught. The first step is to ask the miracle question: If a miracle occurred and I could have my life exactly the way I want it, what would it be like? The next step is to look at all the arenas in your life and ask yourself that same question. If a miracle occurred and I could have my personal relationships exactly the way I want them, what would it be like? If a miracle occurred and I could have my career and work life exactly the way I want them, what would it be like? Do the same for physical health, education, finances, mental health, recreation and spirituality.
It is interesting that satisfaction with life does not necessarily mean the achievement of grand and glorious goals. It does mean that you have met the goals you set for yourself to your satisfaction.
Let’s say that your life would be most different if a miracle occurred in the arena of physical health, fitness and recreation. These may be areas that could benefit from a little boost of hope in your life. You might decide to set a goal to begin an exercise program. Next it’s up to you – your ability to find a way to begin and willpower to carry you through. The way is usually easy at first glance. You decide that a way to begin is to get up at 5:00 AM and run for a mile. Don’t forget to plan for a way to make you get out of bed! Maybe you need to move the alarm across the room and leave the snooze feature disabled. Will power doesn’t come into play right away, as evidenced by how many folks religiously pursue their New Year’s Resolutions – for three weeks. Will power has to kick in when you get tired or bored or aren’t seeing the results you wanted.
Hope is a way of approaching life that says YES and I CAN. Positive Psychology reminds us and our coaches and counselors that hope can be learned at any age. The best we can do for ourselves is to focus on what we CAN do and where we want to go. Clarity and persistence come from the hope we nurture in ourselves.
http://www.travisps.com
Dr. Mary Travis practices positive psychology in Winter Park, Florida. She evaluates for giftedness, learning disabilities, attention deficit, depression, anxiety, asperger’s disorder and emotional intelligence. Her practice niches are trichotillomania (compulsive hair pulling), trichadrem (skin picking) and victims of female bullies. She coaches and counsels individuals and groups for anxiety, depression, social skills, female bullying and body focused repetitive disorders.
Focus on Positive Thinking – Turning Negative Statements Into Positive Statements
The Universe delivers what you ask for. And you ask for these things via your thoughts. So, suffice it to say, if you are thinking negatively, the Universe is going to deliver negative things. Don’t you think it’s about time to start changing your thinking patterns right now?
You might say that’s easier said than done. Well, I am here to help you gain a better perspective. It’s easier to do thank you think.
We are trained from a young age to think things are hard and that to get anything and anywhere in life, you have to work hard at it. While in a sense that can be true, but it’s not entirely true. Things only have to be hard if you make them hard. If you think that it takes hard work, then it WILL take hard work. Have you ever noticed people who things just come easily to? Guess what? They don’t have the thought that things need to be hard in order to achieve results. They think thoughts that things are easy to do.
It’s interesting how some people can pick up skills very easily, and others can’t seem to put two and two together in the same skill. Take me for example. I am a natural computer user. I have no fear of the computer. Computers come very easily to me. I am pretty much self-taught on computers. From formatting Word and Excel documents, to playing online computer games, to hand-coding HTML, it all comes very easy and natural to me. And I’m not even entirely sure why. It just does. And I embrace that. To me, my thoughts are computers are easy, they are natural, and they are nothing to be afraid of. Others who can’t seem to pick up computer skills to save their lives have thoughts of computers are hard, difficult, and unfriendly. So, naturally, the Universe is going to deliver to them, a hard time grasping those computer skills.
Now let’s talk next about turning negative thinking or statements into positive thinking or statements. Many people think that they are thinking positively, but they aren’t. And let me share with you why they are not really thinking positively. They make one big mistake. They follow up their thought or statement with a caveat, or a negative twist. Something like, “I feel great… I am in no pain”. Well, guess what, there’s that negative – there’s that “pain” that they thought they were getting rid of.
So, let’s do a little footwork to try to learn how to turn negative statements into positive statements. We need to totally get rid of the negative and keep it completely positive. Let’s start with some examples.
Say someone has a blood clot, or they have heart problems (blocked or clogged arteries). Instead of saying “I want to be free from any blockages or clogging”, let’s try something like “My blood flows through my arteries and veins freely, easily, and effortlessly”. See how that was completely positive, and actually said what the person wanted, and not what they don’t want? That’s what you have to do. Get away from thinking about what you don’t want because the more you focus on what you don’t want, the more you will get what you don’t want. Whether you want it or not, it’s what you are focused on that you will get. Let’s try another example. Say someone wants more money. Instead of saying “I want more money so that I can get out of debt” (see the negative on the end of that statement – debt?). Try something like “I have more than enough cash to provide me the services and goods that I want”. There, that’s completely positive and focuses entirely on what the person wants, instead of what they don’t want. Let’s try one more, just so that you have the idea down pat. Instead of “I feel great today… I’m not having any pain in my back” try “I feel great today… I can move my back freely and easily and have complete flexibility”. Bingo! Completely positive and focused on what the person wants.
I hope you’ve gotten the idea here. Take one thought, right now, that you have been thinking and take all negativity away from it and turn it totally positive. Focus on that positive statement. Give yourself a chance to succeed.
Do not fear success, fear failure. You can only fail if you let yourself. You are the creator of your life, so live well, my friends.
Kelli Jacobson
Entrepreneur, Internet Marketer
Live Abundantly Successful
http://www.liveabundantlysuccessful.com/
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Focus on the Positive
If you look around you and observe all of the various aspects of modern life, you will realize something phenomenal. Every invention, every object in the man-made world originated in a person’s mind before entering the physical, tangible world. Its incredible to understand that everything around us has been invented or improved by someone at some point in history. When you think about what you have accomplished in your life (and what you have failed to accomplish), you will realize that everything began as a dream or was imagined as thought in your mind a long time ago.
In other words, what we are trying to say is that your very thoughts helped create the circumstances of your life. You have probably heard the phrase,” you become what you think about.”
We believe there is great truth in that statement, and furthermore, we believe that your thoughts will to a great extent determine your ultimate success or failure in life. You may find this idea strange or reject it as some crazy new age idea or metaphysical abstraction. Well, we won’t inquire into a discussion about metaphysics or abstract philosophy.
What we will do, however, is simplify this concept and demonstrate why it is really a matter of common sense. You see, unsuccessful and unhappy people constantly focus on the problems they currently have, and they then try to blame these problems on everyone else but themselves.
Flourishing people, on the other hand, spend most of their time thinking about what it is they want to achieve. In other words, failures are problem-oriented, while successful and happy people are solution-oriented. No one will claim that there are no difficulties in life, and many people face serious challenges on their way to achieving goals. The issue is whether these obstacles will in the end serve as a obstruction or a positive challenge for the person who is trying to achieve certain objectives.
When you think about it in this manner, it becomes pretty clear why you become what you think about. It is not simply that your thoughts somehow magically transform into riches, as if your mind could physically manifest a pot of gold or some other wild imagination. Rather, what we are trying to say is that your thoughts will ultimately determine your actions. Focusing on your problems most of the time will keep you from seeing the solutions that are often right in front of you.
Jacob Lumbroso is a world traveler and an enthusiast for foreign languages, history, and foreign cultures. He recommends http://restaurantequipmentparts.org/ for anyone looking to buy restaurant equipment parts.
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