The year 2020 has been rough for all of us. It started when a global pandemic shut down basically the entire world. Since then we have been dealing with one issue after another. Currently there is a lot of racial tension going on. It feels like change is right around the corner. Change should always be welcomed. Change brings on new opportunities and new possibilities.
Through my experiences, I have learned that when times are tough and feelings are down, something good is always around the corner. We tend to get caught up in the negative emotions that can surround bad times. We fail to see into the future and how bad moments can lead to positive change. An optimistic attitude is the only thing that can keep us excited for the future.
It is easy to let unfavorable circumstances take away from your happiness and peace of mind. You start to buy into the hysteria and the negative emotions of others. If you are constantly reacting to what is going on around you, you lose touch with what is going on inside you. Your happiness and peace of mind gets replaced by anxiety, pessimism, and an overall negative outlook on life.
These emotions can cause you to feel bad for yourself. You start thinking about all the other unfair things that have happened to you in your life. You start focusing on what you don’t have and everything that is wrong with the world. These are just a couple of common traits of the victims mentality. The victims mentality makes you feel like everyone or everything is against you. When you think this way it causes you to think that everyone is your opponent. In reality, it is hardly ever this way. It is never you versus everyone else. It is really just you versus yourself.
Often times you are really your fiercest opponent. You make things much bigger than they need to be which causes your stress levels to intensify. Unfavorable circumstances are certainly never welcomed or wanted but they are a part of life. Nothing will ever be perfect. When you dwell on unfavorable circumstances you cannot see or focus on all the positive things that are also happening. It is never always negative, or even always positive. There are so many small things in life that you can appreciate. Look to find one small thing per day that you can appreciate.
When you dwell on your negative circumstances you have no expectations of good happening. You can only think about all that is wrong. An optimistic attitude will allow you to have faith that tomorrow will be a better day. Today might suck but tomorrow hasn’t come yet. Tomorrow can only suck if you let it. If you decide to make tomorrow an amazing day, it will be.
There are always going to be bad times and unfavorable circumstances in life. So often in life we let our negative circumstances become our driving force for change. We have to get out of the mindset that something has to go terribly wrong before we can change. It will inevitably be sometimes too late to make changes. Or perhaps the damage is so great we put ourselves way behind. Don’t wait for something bad to happen to make change. Identify areas you want to improve on and take action. Change doesn’t have to come until it’s too late.
An optimistic mindset helps you look forward to opportunities. Unfavorable circumstances can bring on bad times. If you are truly optimistic you won’t dwell on the bad, but instead be focused on what is around the corner. No matter how down things seem to be, something good is always around the corner. Stay focused on all the positive things in your life. Even the smallest of things. This will help keep you from getting to down on yourself and letting circumstances affect your happiness and inner peace.
The Rolling J / Jonathan McClure
Previous J of the Day – https://therollingj.net/j-of-the-day-depth-of-experience/
LinkedIn Profile – https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-mcclure-0594aa17b/
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