The power of positive thinking

Thinking skills is one of the most underrated interpersonal skills. If you need to attain any thing in life, you need to get into the habit of cultivating good thinking skills.

Daily positive affirmations helps to boost your self esteem and confidence.  It will improve your mood, make you feel good about yourself, and make you stay focused. When your mind aligns well with good positive thoughts, it filters out negative thoughts and declutters your system of all forms of negativity.

Why then don't a lot of people practice it often? As Henry Ford rightly observed, he said "Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason so few engage in it".

Everyday, try and think postive thoughts only. Always strive to have a positive, mental and emotional attitude towards life, about yourself and people.

7 powerful positive thinking skills

1. Watch your emotions

Use emotional intelligence to gauge the level of your emotions. Deny yourself the opportunity to be sad, moody, or allow your mind to be affected by negativity.

2. Never allow people's opinion to define you

Choose the people around you that will always infect you with positive affirmations. The people that speak positively to you are the ones that add value to your life. Never allow anyone's opinion to dictate your life. People's biased opinion of you is not a factual assessment of your capability.

3. Mind what you listen to

Be careful of what you listen to at all times. Never allow negativity to filter into your mind and dominate your thoughts.

4. Say words of afffirmation

At all times, endeavour to say positive words of affirmations to your self. Words carry power and they can accomplish good things.

5. Try new things

Get yourself busy and be creative. By being creative, it allows your brain to think in a different way.

6. Read books on motivation

Always try and read books on personal development and motivation. It expands your mind and enables you to think more positive thoughts. Your spirit will be lifted when you read about success stories of other people.

7. Be focused

In order to think good thoughts and achieve your dreams, set S.M.A.R.T goals to keep you focused. As you accomplish each goal and move to another goal, your self esteem levels will go up.

Goal setting

Unarguably, goal setting helps entrepreneurs to have  a clear strategic perspective of the objective they want to attain. Goal setting has to be S.M.A.R.T (Smart, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-Bound) and have clarity, rather than being vague and unfocused. If the goal is not specific, it will be difficult to ascertain if you have attained them.

For example,it is better to have a specific goal that states "our business intends to increase sales performance by 20% within one year" than saying "We intend to increase sales performance".

To achieve this aim, a specific goal focuses primarily on the following questions:

1. Who are the people involved in setting and achieving this goal?
2. What specific goal do you want to achieve?
3. Where is the location of what you want to achieve?
4. What is the time frame to achieve this goal?
5. Which resources will you need to achieve this goal?
6. Why do you want to achieve this goal?

You can apply these technique to whatever goal you intend to achieve. e.g Starting your own business, losing weight, building/buying your dream house, etc.

Soundbite: Always remember that your 'dream' is a goal with a deadline.

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