My reactions to the conclusion of situations have always been based on the outcome of each situation. If the outcome was positive or expected, I would be happy or pleased with how everything went. If the outcome was negative or the unexpected, I would criticize the process and try to understand what went wrong.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how my reactions to the outside world affect my inner thoughts, causing turmoil within myself and my life. There is no reason for me to stick my head in the past in order to dictate the present or future. Everything happens for a reason and this fact is almost always forgotten in the moment.
I started trying to see everything in a new light. Repeating the mantra “Everything happens for a reason and things could always be worse so be thankful,” I have been seeing positivity in every situation no matter the outcome.
I recently began a new project at work. The project did not start off great. There was no guidance and the team looked to me for guidance, in which I was no help. My project was to be a way paver and therefore everything is to be done differently than what’s been done in the past. My thoughts were all over the place. New team, new concepts, resistance and high visibility with upper management. Talk about stress and pressure to be perfect and produce great results. Our initial results were very low and did not give confidence to our management, which lowered morale. We didn’t think that we would succeed and it started to show in our work. What happened next is I started speaking positivity into the project and to the project team and eventually, the team started speaking positivity about the project. No matter the resistance we face with outside influencers, we remain positive and continue to work to the best of our abilities. We have already surpassed expectations and plan to continue in that way.
Changing the mindset can really help sway results of many things. If you look at a failure as something negative, it will most definitely be factored in as something negative. But if you look at a failure as a learning experience and feel joy just because you went through the situation, life will turn it into a gift. A positive mindset will help prevent the feeling of fear and dread of going into a similar situation one had failed in, in the past. A Negative mindset will most definitely ensure that another failure will occur. Why is that? Well, dwelling on the hypothetical and beating yourself up over failure, prevents learning and growth.
Learning and growth is what makes each of us great and makes the world go round. Many of our great inventions or medical successes would not be here if failures and fear took over the innovators mind. Perseverance fuels a positive mind. Being positive doesn’t mean you don’t fail but it means you keep moving forward despite what happens in the past.
Changing our mindsets to a more positive mindset will help bring optimism into every aspect of life, essentially ensuring all paths lead to growth, learning and happiness.
Look Within 