How To Avoid Negative Thinking
/Do you focus on the negative more than the positive? Then you need to interrupt this negative thought pattern and create a new way of thinking positively. Sounds easier said than done right?
I loved leading Sport Psychology Consultant Simon Hartley's take on how we spiral into a negative mindset. Read on to see if the negative thought pattern outlined below relates to your life experience? At the end I give you some actions you can take to help you break this negative thought pattern and start thinking more positively.
1. You lose your focus
Have you ever lost your focus for an hour, day, week or more?
We are all guilty of this. Those who are successful quickly notice when they lose the focus and are then able to get it back within a very short amount of time. While others find this challenging.
Have you forgotten WHY you’re doing what you’re doing? Have you even written down your why?
When we get easily distracted, forget our why and lose our focus, this often leads to….
(Read my article on 5 Steps To Developing A Mindset For Success to find out how to create your Why and the 5-step method for creating a positive and successful mindset)
2. Mistake(s)
Once you make a mistake, your confidence tends to take a hit. Has this ever happened to you? You made a mistake in a project, you get called up on it and you feel a little less confident?
Have you then started focusing on all of the negative things that have happened and/or the things you couldn’t do or perhaps didn’t do as well as you could have etc.?
Did this lead you to making more mistakes?
Then you likely experienced….
3. Failure
Did your project or business fail?Did you not achieve your goal?
Perhaps you tried too hard to create your desired outcome and it just didn’t work?
Maybe you felt more stressed and couldn’t see the wood for the trees?
When you get to this point you often feel…
4. Overwhelm
Did you start thinking too much? Your inner voice became negative? Perhaps you tried too hard to fix things? Feelings of pressure and stress increased? You didn’t know where to start to get back on track? It just all became too much?
(Do you want change your inner voice? Read 3 Steps To Improve Your Inner Voice to find out how you can quieten you inner critic and create a positive inner voice.)
5. Snowballs
Unfortunately, once we get here we’ve usually created a self-perpetuating beast of negativity, made up of everything we’ve done wrong. We don’t know what to do or how to move forward. We feel stuck and it sucks. Big Time.
So What To Do?
In a perfect world, you would interrupt this pattern at Point 1, when you notice straightaway that you have lost your focus. However, no one is perfect.
When you notice your focus ebbing, go back to your why and have a ready made list of the top 5 things you can do to get back on track and increase your focus…. Perhaps it’s going for a walk and listening to upbeat music or an inspirational podcast, doing some exercise like running, talking to a friend and asking for help or watching a motivational video. Anything that makes you feel that fire in your belly again :)
If you lose your focus and let your negative thinking snowball, don’t worry, it happens to everyone at some point. Give yourself love, compassion and take time out to return to your why - or create a new one. Then really hone in on what you need to focus on.
(Need help on honing in on what to focus on? Read How To Achieve Your Dream Goal to learn a unconventional, but effective 3-step method to discover where you need to focus your energy and time)
