Attitude is everything.  It sounds so simple, yet it’s not so easy.  We hear it often – keep a positive attitude, what you think about you bring about, focus on the positive etc.

All that sounds great in theory right?  But how do you put it into action every day and actually accomplish it when life is in session and negative stuff keeps hitting you constantly from all angles? I’ve said it often, we live in a negative world.  Negativity is everywhere we look.  Internet, News, Media, Music, Movies, Television etc.

In order to combat the constant barrage of negativity, we must counteract it and reduce the amount of negative images and information we see, read and hear.  That includes our self-talk.  What we say to ourselves and what thoughts go through our heads?

Do you leave the TV on in your house constantly for noise or to keep you from feeling alone?  Many people do. Some even leave it on at night and fall asleep to it and wake up to it.  When you leave the TV on constantly and don’t really listen to what it’s saying, you are still getting the affects and messages anyway.  There are dozens of ads, news reports, shows with questionable content, movies etc that are all filled with negative messages. Turn the TV off. It might be strange at first but give it some time, you will get used to it. For me, it keeps my mind less cluttered and makes me more productive.

Do you listen to a lot of negative talk radio? How much news do you read and listen to?  What are the lyrics in the music you listen to?  What kind of movies do you watch or video games do you play? Do you have family members and friends that are always saying negative things? Some of it you can’t control, but most of it you can.  The solution is to change some habits.  Stop putting so much garbage into your life and mind.  Stop getting involved in other people’s negative drama.  Stop being a willing participant in negative discussions.  It’s so easy for us to do the negative dance.  It’s almost as if we are programmed to do it.

What about the self-talk?  I had nothing but negative messages fed to me my entire childhood.  No matter what I did in my adult life, it was always a struggle because I had to fight against that uphill battle of the self-talk that was programmed in me from childhood. I had to do more work than the average person to turn my life around.  If I can do it, you can do it.  It just takes effort which many shy away from but there is no light switch we can flip to become better at anything.  The power is in the work.

Start by slowly eliminating the things I mentioned above. It may take some time to wean yourself off of some of those things but once you have awareness, it’s easier to make the effort. That will also start you down a path to eliminating the negative self-talk.  Another tool you can use for eliminating negative self-talk is the Life Changing Procedure created by Zig Ziglar.  It’s something you say to yourself twice a day for 60-90 days to change your attitude about yourself.  It works if you do it.  If you are interested in receiving a copy of the Life Changing Procedure, please email me at eldonns@thinklikeanegotiator.com.

The bottom line is to change your world, you must change your thoughts, to change your thoughts, you must change what goes into your space and replace the negative with positive.  Simple, but not easy.