How Does Enthusiasm Influence Your Life?

A question with some simple and meaningful words whose response is reflected throughout our lives due to the contribution of recommendations and opinions from the people around us, in any decision we make, because sometimes it could cause long-term consequences, since they try to help us and we don’t take it the right way. In short, only you can have absolute control of your life.

Before starting with the central theme, I want to stand out that by the use of logic, we know that we are prepared and trained in this subject, only that as humans, at last, because of their feelings, emotions and personalities, they need a support or any kind of impulse to carry out your projects.

For a clearer concept, The Royal Spanish Academy (RAE), states that:

ENTHUSIASM:Exaltation and moodiness, excited by something that admires or captivates you. Fervent adhesion that moves to favor a cause or commitment. Furor or rapture of the sibyls when giving their oracles. Fiery and snatched inspiration from the writer or artist, especially the poet or the speaker.

With respect to the concept of Influence, it expresses the following:

INFLUENCE:action and effect of influencing. Power, courage, authority of someone to another or other people or to intervene in a business. Person with power or authority with whose authority with whose intervention an advantage, favor or benefit can be obtained. Grace and inspiration that God sends inwardly to souls.

You can already get your own ideas and the answer to this question with the definitions, if you realize, it is obvious, sure you already know. I’m glad. And finally, all these things are forming our identity as people.

For example, the case that could happen to anyone when they start studying the last year of elementary school where we receive a psychological preparation to start high school.

In my case, I thank my teacher who, with her recommendations, made me the easier way to travel to start in high school.

We can suppose that any child begins to study his last year of elementary school; and the people who are in his environment, scare him because most of the days they tell him what his new stage will be like and how he will change his lifestyle, which will determine his behavior and influence his achievements in the stage adult.

The teacher demanded a lot from the child, she repeated again and again all the things that would change and how important it would be to have “decision power and know what you want in life.”

Almost every afternoon and weekend the child spent studying for an exam or preparing any work.

One day, the boy was with lots of homework. Mom tells him:

The mother (she says very angry): -I’m going to talk to that teacher, she is demanding a lot and she doesn’t let you sleep anymore, don’t do that homework; because tomorrow I personally speak with her!

The child (angry too) - Mom, what are you going to do when they require me in high school? Are you going to complain? When you go there, they won’t pay attention to you, so you should get used to it.

The mother (laughing) - Aaahhh! ha ha ha, you’re absolutely right.

In the classroom there were two of his classmates, who, like him, studied and worried about their responsibilities.

After a few weeks at school, they already knew who each of their classmates were. Some students and he began to compete for better grades than others.

One afternoon the boy told his mother:

The child: - Mom, in the school some classmates and me compete by get a better grade, I’m tired of competing with them, what do I do?

The mother: - since you are tired of competing with them, I imagine that they are also like that; It seems to me that you should form a group with them, and so none of you compete and can get good grades together.

The child thought that idea was great; and the next day the boy called his classmates and said:

The child: - Since all this time we have competed to have the best grades, why don’t we join to do the homework as a group? So we do not compete and in the same way we will obtain higher grades, what do you think? - asked them.

One of the partners: - Yes, it seems like a good idea.

The boy: -And you? What do you think?

The other partner: (with enthusiasm) –Yes!

From that moment, they obtained the best score grades in the classroom, they did so for a month.

To make an exhibition, the three integrated a group, the mother of the child helped them to make the support material, each member of the group contributed to the development of this activity.

The day of the exhibition was splendid and they stood out a lot in their subject. At that moment, the little boy realized that with his classmates, he can get many good things; It’s like the saying:

“We will win together”

He continued that way for a long time, obtaining good grades, the child reached one of his purposes as well as his small goals. Thanks to that exhibition he was selected to represent the school in a sciences project, he no longer needed to compete, because there was a lot of work waiting for him. A few days before, his brother would help him.

When the day of the exhibition arrived, his brother and him got the first place of the regional contest, in the municipal they obtained the third place. He and his brother were the most popular in the school, they had managed to appear in two newspapers in the city, and the boy managed to be the best in his class, a pride for his parents.

They could not continue representing the school with the project, because the institution did not have the economic resources to pay all their expenses. But the children’s teacher realized that he was very enthusiastic and optimistic, thanks to his mother, who read self-help books and read them to his child.

One of the things he always kept in mind was that he should be very optimistic; being interested in optimism the brain would act positively and since all positive things are good, you would get a better result in the things you are considering doing.

●The child passed to the next grade with good grades, and won the school projects, and all that was achieved thanks to his enthusiasm.

●Although he always knew that having started competing with his teammates was a serious mistake.

“Based on all this, you can imagine how important it is to be prepared, safe and confident of ourselves and others so that through the influence we have of our environment in some case of our lives we can cope.”

Also with this story I want to highlight again and again, that since we have reason, everything around us influences others, and depending on how we handle this influence will be reflected in your personality.

To better understand it. Personally, i consider that there are three levels with which you can classify the types of personalities:

100% happy people, who have “internal peace”

The confused people.

Mediocre people.

The first type of person left to your discretion and your logic the concept you have of them.

The second type of people are confused by the influence of their environment and have not yet encountered themselves.

Finally, the third type of people are poor-minded, who have not been able to dominate their lifestyle; that is, they do things not because they want to do it, but simply because others do it or simply by doing them.

Which one do you think you are in right now?

Understanding Enthusiasm

About half of your overall happiness is genetic.

Some of us were literally born predisposed to be less enthusiastic than others. However, that should never keep us from achieving the things we want in life. Someone who is short should not give up on their dreams of being a model or playing basketball. Someone who can’t play an instrument shouldn’t let that stop them from achieving their dreams of being in a band.

Though your genetics might literally be working against you, happiness is still half circumstantial. Factors can determine your happiness, such as:

●Relationship status

●Income

●Education

●Age

●Other life circumstances

Levels of enthusiasm will differ from person to person. Some individuals might be incredibly happy while others struggle to find joy in even the smallest moments. This shouldn’t stop you from achieving your own level of success.

Circumstances and genetics aside, we still have about 30 to 40 percent control over our happiness, despite whatever situation we are in. You might have a terrible job, hate your family, and be born into a terrible life, but over 30 percent of your happiness is still going to be dependent on your own mentality.

If you don’t know how to be naturally happy, then right now, you might be a bit stuck. It’s ok, there is hope!

What we have to recognize above all else is that our circumstances aren’t the only determining factor for our happiness. Much of the positive or negative emotions that we feel are based around the situation that we are presently in.

Research has shown that certain things can actually enhance your mood, such as:

●Going for a walk through nature

●Hanging out with cheerful people

●Practicing gratitude

In fact, studies have shown that a happy friend can increase your chances of being happy by over 10%. So can we assume that ten happy friends means you’ll be 100% happy?

Unfortunately it’s not as easy as that. You can be friends with 100 happy people and still be miserable. Vice versa, you could be friends with 100 miserable people and still be happy.

Enthusiasm is being excited about something. With a positive attitude, the right perspective, and avoidance of negative thinking patterns, it’s easy to begin to cultivate enthusiasm in your life. The second part of enthusiasm is knowing what you need to maintain motivation. Fear can hold us back, and challenging obstacles can be so daunting we avoid the situation altogether. The more prepared you are, the easier it will be to overcome the things that are keeping you held back (Braff, 2017).

Perspective

When the topic of enthusiasm comes up, it’s important to remember that it is a perspective.

Perspective is all about how you view the world around you. There are a plethora of factors that go into determining what your perspective might be.

The first thing that develops your perspective is how you were raised.

This will be inclusive of many different factors. First and foremost, the people who raised you will shape your perspective. If you had very negative parents who were constantly unhappy or upset, this will lead to you having similar kinds of emotions. If your parents were always happy and optimistic, it’s likely easier for you to be as well.

Another determining factor can be the religion or the beliefs that you were taught to have. Some people believe that everything we do can be judged. We might be fearful of persecution for our actions or harsh punishment because of the things we choose to do.

If you were always taught to be ashamed of yourself or embarrassed of who you are, this can carry heavily into your adulthood.

The educational system that you experienced growing up can also shape your perspective.

If you lived in poverty or were born into a wealthy family, this will certainly change the way that you view the world.

Your perspective will influence how you understand things as positive or negative. Do you feel as though the world is out to get you? Do you believe that you have a harder life than others?

Another factor for determining your perspective is how you have handled the situations that you endured and what those circumstances might have been. If you were raised never having to experience the loss of somebody that you love, then death is likely not as big of a factor in how you think about life on a daily basis. If you were orphaned as a child and lost your entire family, this will create a much different perspective than the original person that we mentioned.

It’s essential that you begin to look at what your current perspective is because that could be very different from somebody else.

For example, let’s say that there are two girls that went to the same school as one another. They both got good grades. They both were in extracurricular activities, and they both liked similar things. One girl has a very strict house. She was raised to believe that you should constantly be working and that the only thing that matters is having good grades. Another girl was taught that all that matters is you have fun.

Life is all about enjoying things. When both girls end up getting a D on their test, they look at themselves much differently. One girl believes that she is a total failure. Her parents made her believe that grades were more important than anything else, so now it’s hard for her to manage these emotions that have come along with getting a bad grade.

The girl who was taught that life is all about having fun brushes it off and decides to do better the next time. She doesn’t let this negatively impact her day and she continues on with whatever necessary tasks need to be completed. She ends up getting a better grade on the next test because she went into it with a positive attitude.

The other girl ends up failing this test, doing even worse. The anxiety consumed her so much that she was unable to focus on getting the job done.

Our perspective will be different from every person that we know. Everything you experience and all that you have been taught will shape this view you carry of the world. That perspective will also greatly impact how you operate within the world. As we can see, believing in yourself and being excited and passionate can lead to more success than being fearful and scared of everything that will occur. The key to finding that success and living with enthusiasm is cultivating that positive attitude.

Positive Attitude

Having a positive attitude is in no way, shape, or form easy.

Some people are naturally better at having positivity, and it might be a great struggle for other individuals. Either way, we must remember that having a positive attitude is something that can develop over time.

Just because you were born in a very negative environment where people were constantly upset, that does not mean that you have to carry that idea with you forever.

In fact, having to build a positive attitude could be more helpful to you in the end than being born with one naturally. You will appreciate your perspective, even more, giving you the ability to fully find gratitude and happiness within your life.

Having a positive attitude doesn’t mean that you are blind to all things negative. You aren’t focused just on only good while ignorantly dismissing the bad things that are in life.

You don’t choose to specifically ignore negative aspects. In fact, those with a positive attitude embrace the negativity. They’re able to look at the situations that are presented to them and recognize these are things we can overcome. A positive attitude is going to keep you clearly focused on the good aspects of life.

You will be able to notice when good or bad things are happening.

By having a negative perspective you rob yourself of the precious time that we have on Earth. You take your ability to appreciate the life that exists around you and instead you stay stuck on the things that are usually out of your control.

Everybody has their bad days, and there will always be moments of frustration and anger. However, if this is all that you allow into your life, you begin to seek out the negative things. You can take literally any situation and find the good or the bad from it. A negative perspective means you are only focusing on the bad.

Even winning the lottery could be bad for some people. You might discover that you can no longer trust your friends. Maybe it’s harder to recognize if somebody is being genuine or not. The good and the bad will always be there, so instead of just focusing on the bad, you should be focusing on both.

A positive attitude will help you then look at the bad and know how to twist that in a happy way. Having a negative attitude is blinding, you only see what bad things are occurring.

Let’s think back to your perspective and how that plays into your attitude. Imagine that you are walking down the street. On either side of you, there are restaurants and stores and great things to offer. As you walk down the street, you choose to only look at the right side. You discover a couple buildings that seem run-down and an old business that could use some refreshing.

After you’re done walking down the street, you determine that it was a bad neighborhood. You don’t think that you would want to live there because you focused on the right side of the street.

Then as you turn around and walk down the other side, again you look only to the right. Now you see that there are many expensive restaurants and luxury boutiques. You then determine that this is a very expensive part of town.

You discover that you probably wouldn’t be able to afford to live here. In reality, the town is very diverse and eclectic; there are good parts and bad parts.

You would have been able to notice this diversity had you decided to look on both the left and the right sides of town. By limiting your perspective to just one aspect, it becomes harder to see the reality of the situation.

Yes, there were run-down areas and, yes, there were expensive stores. Together, however, it created a diverse neighborhood that can offer benefits to many different types of people.

To cultivate a positive mindset, you do have to know what negative aspects are. You will have to see the bad.

By doing this, you’ll be able to shift your attention. You can look at your day and think, “Wow, I had a terrible day. Everything sucked, and I’m so unhappy. My girlfriend left me, I got fired, and there’s no point in anything. I have nothing.”

Then you can also look at your day and think, “Wow, I’m so happy to be alive, despite my girlfriend having broken up with me and being fired from my job. I still have my health, and that is what is most important at the end of the day. I learned a valuable lesson, and now that I have been through this terrible situation, I know exactly what to do to prevent it from happening again.”

Carrying this positive perspective is essential if you ever want to find joy and happiness in life.

Don’t just look to one side of the road; see that there are two sides that can help you live the truth.

Being happy isn’t about being blindly ignorant. It’s about choosing to see the good even when the bad is taking up the majority of your perspective. The positive will always exist and so will the negative, so we may as well live a life where we pay more attention to the good then we do the bad.

Negative Thinking Patterns

There are many negative thinking patterns that many of us harbor without even realizing it. These can technically be referred to in a psychological aspect as cognitive distortions.

A cognitive distortion is any continued or consistent way of thinking that keeps you trapped in a negative perspective. One example of a cognitive distortion that many of us already embrace is absolute thinking.

Absolute thinking as when we take any phrase and make a determining and definitive statement.

A common absolute phrase is saying that something is the “best” or “worst.”

You might have a bad experience at your morning coffee shop and even though it’s only 10 am, you think to yourself, “This is the worst day of my life.”

That is an absolute phrase.

You haven’t lived through the remainder of the day, so who’s to say whether or not this was a positive or negative day?

Another type of absolute phrase is when we might say something is “the best.” You might look at your friend and see that she is a talented singer. The two of you are in competition with one another to reach the top of your choir class. She gets good grades, so you think to yourself, “She is the best singer.”

When you think in absolutes like this, you put yourself on either end of a spectrum. You refuse to see the gray area that actually exists in the middle.

By saying she is the best singer, you are automatically labeling yourself as the worst singer. This phrase robs us of enthusiasm that we could have in our lives. She might be better than you at some things, but you still have other things to offer.

Another common cognitive distortion is when we think in “all or nothing.” This would include thinking that you either have to do everything on your to-do list or nothing at all.

Sometimes you might have a daunting task of 10 things that you need to get done in a day. You look at this and you think to yourself that you’ll never be able to get this done and that it’s incredibly stressful to even fathom completing many tasks.

Instead of just tackling the first thing on your to-do list, you sit there on the couch, stressed and overwhelmed, not sure what to do next.

You end up getting nothing done for the day and you feel terrible about yourself, destroying your self-esteem. In reality, you could have done at least one thing because that’s better than nothing at all.

However, that “all or nothing” mentality makes us think that if we can’t even be bothered to do one task, we shouldn’t even try to do the rest. This is an unhealthy way of thinking that can keep you trapped in the same mental cycle over and over again.

To really give yourself the freedom to express happiness, you don’t want to limit yourself with these kinds of beliefs.

Another kind of cognitive distortion is when we jump to conclusions. Oftentimes people will go about this way of thinking because they don’t see any other option.

They will begin to think that if a friend does something bad to them, that means the friend no longer likes them. In reality, there are so many factors that go along that we have first to consider before we begin to assume our worst fear is the basis of truth.

Our brains can be very creative and imaginative. It’s easy to think of the worst-case scenario and assume that this is the reality. Unfortunately, that just ends up limiting our perspective.

For example, let’s say that you’re having a party and you invite one of your friends. They text you and tell you that they can’t come because they’re busy. Then you get on social media and see that they’ve been on Twitter for an hour.

You think to yourself, “How could they possibly be busy? They have just been online all day. Why are they ignoring me?”

It can make you scared and paranoid. In reality, this person was at a meeting, but it got kind of boring, so they decided to open their phone and scroll through social media. They weren’t supposed to, but they had to sit for an hour as someone talked in a boring tone, so their mind couldn’t help but pull them towards the stimulating app on their phone. They couldn’t miss the meeting for the party, but they were still able to sneak onto their account for the duration of the meeting.

However, the fact that they did that left you feeling as though they were avoiding you or trying to skip your party because they don’t like you.

In reality, they were busy, they weren’t lying, and they were simply bored.

By jumping to that conclusion, you changed your perspective in a negative way, and now you’re fearful about what isn’t actual reality. No longer are you able to focus on the situation at hand and see that they did want to come to your party and they actually preferred to be there.

And yet, they couldn’t make it because of other circumstances. In fact, they were sitting there at their meeting anxious about the party, wondering what all they were missing out on.

These negative thinking patterns can actually create a filter for how we judge things. If you are constantly jumping to conclusions and using absolutes in the way that you speak, it becomes much easier to have a negative view of the world.

You will carry the same kind of checklist for how you evaluate situations. When you get that text from a friend who says they can’t come, your brain automatically reminds you of all the other texts that have been from people who couldn’t come to your party.

What ends up happening is you only focus on these while ignoring all the texts from people who said that they were excited to come to your party. We filter ourselves to validate the perspective we carry about these types of situations. It’s easy to click back into the same mentality of negativity after you’ve already experienced it once.

Motivation

Enthusiasm will change your life because it provides you with endless motivation. Motivation is what we need to get the job done. You have to be motivated by the things that you like or else it becomes much more challenging to participate in situations that you might not fully enjoy.

Motivation is necessary because it’s what gets you out of bed in the morning. Unfortunately, many of us are motivated by the wrong things. We have a negative perspective and that will shift what it is that we care about achieving the most in life.

Let’s think of a situation where somebody was motivated by the right factors.

Have you ever heard of a man named Thomas Edison? Of course you have! He’s one of the reasons that you’re able to flip the switch in your house to get light rather than having candles all over the place.

Thomas Edison did not think of the light bulb in a day. He didn’t even think of it in a week. It took him time after time of creating different light bulbs and failing for him to discover the kinds that we use today.

Thomas Edison stated that he failed over 1,000 times to try and come up with the light bulb.

It took him an endless number of broken light bulbs, exploded light bulbs, and everything in between to try and get something that actually worked.

It wasn’t easy, but with his motivation, he was able to power through and change the universe. He gave us the ability to have resources that most people never thought possible at the time. This is important to remember because of the things that he was motivated by.

A lot of us are motivated by our fears. We are taught to get things done just because we are scared of not having a happy life. You might absolutely hate your job, and yet you’re still motivated to go every day so that you can put food on your table and have money in your account.

Unfortunately, this also means that you end up doing things out of fear. You might make decisions at work that you wouldn’t at home because you’re scared of losing your job. You have to test your morals and you go through situations that you would never be in if it were not for your fear.

Thomas Edison didn’t create the light bulb because he was scared. He didn’t come up with this great invention because he wanted to keep his utility bills paid.

He wanted to change the world.

He wanted to add a benefit to other people’s lives. He focused on positive motivation driven by dreams and passion rather than fear in an attempt to avoid a negative situation.

If you want to truly bring enthusiasm into your life, it’s time to reevaluate your motivation.

Now is the chance for you to determine everything that is needed to embrace life as we know it.

There are three key steps that you need to be a highly motivated person.

The first is having optimism. Optimism is what will give you clarity to continue going, even when something bad has happened.

The second key factor is knowing how to tackle obstacles. There will always be challenges in life. To live a happy life is not freedom from ever experiencing a negative situation; you simply know how to best find resolution in situations that would normally scare people away.

And the only method to successfully achieve all of this is to maintain proper preparation. Have an idea of what you need to do ahead of time, and come into a situation ready and willing to overcome all of these obstacles.

Optimism

It’s a key word that we’ve all heard before.

Maybe somebody has even told you that you were a pessimist in the past.

Whether you feel like you are naturally more optimistic or more pessimistic, these are two factors that you can change with time and practice. It’s not easy, but you will be able to use this to drive your passions. Optimism is essential because it’s how you get out of bed in the morning.

If you wake up every day and think, “Oh my god, work is terrible. I’m never going to be able to do this. I hate my life and I want to quit,” then, of course, that’s how you’re going to view the rest of your day.

You’re going to continue to think to yourself that life is awful and you won’t have any motivation to continue on. You need to have that optimism to give you a reality check.

You want to get out of bed in the morning thinking, “Today is going to be great! I might not be completely enthusiastic and excited to go to work, but I do know that whatever happens, I’ll make it out alive in the end!”

Just like having a positive attitude, optimism isn’t about being blind. It’s not about ignoring any of the ideas that are offered up by a pessimist.

In reality, you want to cultivate a life where you can see both the good and the bad. You want that ability to recognize that sometimes you’re going to just have bad days. Other times, you’re going to have the best day of your life. Life is not a consistent, steady stream. It’s a constant balance between the good and the bad.

Being optimistic, you also recognize that the bad is something that you must endure in order to achieve the good.

You have to experience those moments of negativity to fully embrace what the positive aspect can bring.

You have to be prepared for things to not go your way for you to appreciate the times when it does go just as you expected.

For example, think about how much more fulfilled you feel when you overcome a challenge than when something comes easy or natural to you.

Let’s say that you want to buy a new pair of shoes that are $200. You go to work every single day, saving up most of your paycheck, in order to buy this pair of shoes. The day comes when you can finally make the purchase. You go to the store and you hand over all that money that you have worked so hard to save up for. It feels so good to be able to take your hard-earned money and put it towards something that you love. You look at your feet every day, and you appreciate the new pair of shoes that you worked so hard for.

Now let’s imagine that somebody just simply gave you that pair of shoes.

How much less would you appreciate them? Of course you would still be grateful that somebody went out of their way to provide you with a gift, but you would also recognize that when you have to work hard for something, it’s a way bigger payoff than when it happened so suddenly or unexpectedly. What if you were a millionaire that didn’t need to save up for $200 pairs of shoes? What if you worked at a shoe store and got them for free? Putting all that time and effort in makes us more appreciative of what we have worked so hard to achieve.

You had to go through the bad aspects to get that good feeling. You had to go to work for 40 hours a week. You had to save your money and avoid buying some other fun things that you wanted, all so you would have the money to make this great purchase.

You had optimism going in and recognized that all of your setbacks and all of the suffering you endured was temporary. You didn’t just blindly go through pretending as if everything was okay. You acknowledged that there were some negative parts of that journey, and you paid special attention to the struggles that you had to overcome.

Still at the end of the day, you were able to be optimistic about the results, and that ended up rewarding you because now you appreciate the shoes so much more than you ever could have. It’s not just the shoes that are the reward anymore. Instead, it is the fulfillment of earning these shoes that made you realize your personal value. That earned pride is much more expensive than a pair of shoes.

Tackling Obstacles

Based on your perspective, you will also struggle to see life depending on where you are with your optimism. Obstacles are harder to overcome for those who lack enthusiasm.

Tackling obstacles is never easy. There will always be challenges that we have to overcome and times when we have to struggle, even though we desperately don’t want to.

There are a few steps to being more optimistic that will help you cultivate a life of enthusiasm. When you confront your goals with positivity, not only are they easier to try and overcome, but your results will likely be better as well.

First, remember that you are the one who is in control. Even when there are so many circumstances that you have no power over, you still have the ability to change the situation. If the external circumstances are entirely out of your control, you at least have the power to change your attitude. What seems like a terrible situation might not be so bad when you simply alter the way that you are viewing it.

Remember that all suffering is temporary. Every moment where you just feel like you’re going to die and as though everything is awful, you can remind yourself that you will get through. Adversity is the way to actually appreciate your life even more.

Another step towards tackling your obstacle is paying attention to what you believe the outcome will be. A lot of times we don’t even realize that we have already set ourselves up for failure. You might have already convinced yourself that it is you who is going to fail. You might have already assumed that nothing’s going to go your way and everything’s going to be bad.

Unfortunately, this just limits our perspective and sets us up for failure.

A self-fulfilling prophecy is when you buy into a certain idea that has already been predetermined for you. If you were born into a life where everybody calls you a failure all the time, then you are going to be a lot more likely to believe that you are a failure. If you were born in a world where people constantly built you up and told you that you are going to be great, you might be great, but you could also feel so pressured to be perfect that you end up actually failing.

The predisposed view and expectation that we have toward ourselves can end up being one of the determining factors for how we view our circumstances.

Don’t set yourself up for failure. Recognize that you are capable of achieving most things that you put your mind to. You are the one who is in control of your issues, and even when it seems as though somebody else has already made the decision for what your success outcome is going to be, you have power over changing that.

Optimism is going to be one of the most helpful aspects for changing your perspective because you’ll be able to recognize the actual negative things which need overcoming. People who are blindly positive might actually miss out on some negative aspects of life.

They might overlook a failure or a moment that they could have improved on because, instead, they are simply focused on being optimistic.

To tackle your obstacles, you’re going to have to recognize what those obstacles are. As somebody who might not have enthusiasm in your life as it is or who struggles with positivity, then you can recognize that you are greater at pointing out your flaws. Maybe you’re actually hung up on your negative aspects, always thinking about how you can improve on them.

This is when our negative perspective and our patterns of thinking actually become a helpful tool. They can be the way that you overcome all of the adversity or struggles you have in life because you are able to recognize the reality of a situation.

Rather than being somebody blindly positive with too high a self-esteem that only focuses on their strengths, you recognize your weaknesses and can flip those around to turn them into strengths. This is going to help you overcome obstacles much more than just going into a situation with a blindly positive attitude.

Maintaining Preparation

As we already discussed, some of the situations that you are in might have held you back in the past. Always thinking in a negative pattern can leave you feeling as though you are a failure. You point out your flaws and you focus on the things that you are not good at.

Sometimes one of your cognitive distortions might be that you are catastrophizing. Whenever we catastrophize, we think of the worst-case scenario and we assume that this is going to happen.

You might not want to go on a vacation because you assume that the plane is going to crash. You don’t want to try performing at your local open mic night because you assume everybody is going to laugh at you. These situations could happen and maybe already are somewhere in the universe. That does not mean they will happen to you.

You can use this catastrophizing to your advantage. Envision the worst-case scenario and think about what could happen in a negative way, then use this to prepare yourself. Remind yourself:

“Well even if that does happen, that doesn’t mean that my life has to be so bad. Even if everybody does laugh at me and I get embarrassed, then I’ll just do better the next time.”

Don’t let the worst-case scenario be what keeps you from achieving. Instead, use it as a tool so you can know how to overcome your greatest fears.

Be prepared, but not in a paranoid way. There’s a big difference between being excited and hopeful about what is to come and being completely fearful over all the worst things that can happen.

Whenever you begin focusing on the negative, remember to flip the coin over. Switch your perspective and look at the other side of the road. What is it that could happen in this situation? That is how you will be able to truly find your happiness.