Guard Your Success. Guard Your Mind

Have you ever noticed that right after watching or reading the news, which is many times very negative in nature, that you feel un-nerved, stressed, frustrated, upset, offcenter, etc? Wonder why?

As guardians of our personal success, we need to realize that there are things out there that will steal your motivation and your positive mindset. These success thieves come in the forms of all things negative.

While you don't want to be out of touch with reality, you also don't wan't to focus too much on the negative side of it. Feed your mind from more positive sources.

The news is more often than not a bad place to find a source of motivation and encouragement, as bad knews unfortunately attends to draw larger crowds.  I never could understand why people devoured bad news so much more rapidly than good news. Sometimes it seems like people think that having a positive mentality is cheesy, uncool, or the like. Go around with a smile on your face, and a few people are bound to look at you strangely. 

The truth is that negativity will most certainly slow or even halt your progression to success. In this respect, negativity can be considered the enemy. Try to develop the habit of looking on the bright side. Engage in optimism.

Here's a powerful tool that you can use to switch over to the positive mentality: habit. We are creatures of habit. And by our habitual natures we either rise to greatness, are brought to our knees in failure, or become bogged down in stagnation. Changing habits can be frustrating, however. One way to limit the frustration involved is to learn to observe your mind state. Try it now. Try to gauge how positive or negative your mind-state is right now, as if you were an unbiased third party. Now continue to observe what your routine has been like to today. Were you around positive people? Or negative? Digest positive news or negative? Is the glass half empty or half full? When you know the answer simply decide to gently steer your mind in the right direction. You are in charge, right?

You can't just decide to be positive and keep patronizing those negative and draining sources  around you. Invest less time in the negative people around you. If all  of your friends are negative and cynical, then you might try looking for a more positive bunch. Turn off the news and find a good positive book to read. There are many, many out there. I have found that it is usually good to read from a motivational book in the morning before I get going.

Sometimes during the day our minds can be so overrun with the negativity around us, that we will ourselves feel incredibly negative. We may even say that we are in a bad mood. You see, when your mind is exposed to negativity and you have left it unguarded, your mind will absorb it and move the negativity into your working memory. What happens next is that the negativity begins to affect all of your actions, thoughts, and decisions. The negativity goes straight to the subconscious processing centers of our brain and begins to affect us on every level including how we feel physically, spiritually, and emotionally. On the flip-side, positivity has the same effect. What we should do when we realize that our minds have become engulfed in negativity is to purge our minds of it. Just spend a few minutes somewhere quiet, or if there is nowhere just imagine a peaceful scene and visualize the worries and negativity slipping away freely. See your mind become calmer and calmer, relax your muscles, and breathe deeply and calmly. De-stress, remove the negativity (remember, you're in charge), then with some sense of urgency, find something positive for your mind to chew on. If you can't find anything, then decide to have a positive conversation, no matter how brief, with the next person you talk to. Think about what you will say. Will you complement them? Will you comment on how nice the day has been? Maybe you will talk about how energetic you felt this morning? Find something good, and dwell on it. 

Remember, you are the guardian of your success. Feed your mind with positivity and watch your spirit grow. 

Until next time, have a great day!!!