Is your glass half-empty or half-full? Do you believe the world is against you or working with you? Your thoughts make a huge impact on your life every single day. Whether positive or negative they will affect how you approach your daily tasks, goals, relationships, finances, work, family life, hobbies, health and fitness goals. So what are you thinking?
“Once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, you’ll start having positive results.” ~ Willie Nelson
Before trying to achieve a health and fitness goal, the most crucial point to actually getting those results is how your mind is set. A positive thinker knows they can achieve the results, whether it’s to get stronger, run faster or lose body fat, they know that they just need to approach the journey properly and they will achieve the desired outcome. A negative thinker will encounter more struggling with going to the gym, making changes with their diet to be healthier too difficult and will focus on how hard it is to change, all whilst making excuses along the way.
The more positive you become, the more likely you are to achieve the health and fitness goals you desire, such as:
- Eating healthier for the long term
- Gaining more energy
- Keeping up a consistent weekly exercise programme that you enjoy
- Feeling more relaxed, happy and content which will make eating better and exercising an easy part of life
- Changing body composition as you will be eating and exercising in a consistent manner that suits your desired goal
- Having a healthy relationship with your body, in terms of how you feel on the inside and outside
5 Easy Steps to Becoming More Positive
Here are five easy steps to be more positive that can help everyday life, including health and fitness goals.
1- Practice Gratitude – Appreciate as much as you can in the life that you have now. Yes you can make changes but it is always easier to make those changes when you become more aware of your current situation and feel grateful for every part of your surroundings. This is one of those very simple things you can do to bring more positivity in to your life. Have a gratitude diary and list the things in your life for which you are grateful. You can do this every day, once a week or simply every now and then when you need an uplifting boost.
2 – Positivity is a Choice – Start to believe that a positive attitude is a choice. You have the choice to be positive or negative, so which would you prefer? Every day when you get up tell yourself three things: 1) why you are awesome, 2) what will you do today that you will enjoy, 3) you can achieve what you desire. It is time to stop blaming external factors for your negativity, and realise that you are in control for how you approach daily tasks and general life. Want to start the day with a healthy breakfast? Do it!
3 – Eliminate Negativity – This may be a hard task at first but the more you become aware of how outside factors are crushing your mindset the more you will want to get rid of those that pull you down. Ditch the soul crushers, surround yourself with positive people. Stop watching and reading disastrous news, gossip and bashing of other people. It is hard to maintain a positive perspective if you are constantly pulled down by the negativity of friends, family, or co-workers. Focus on a positive conversation or kindly exit that conversation. Cultivate positive relationships and the more positive you will become.
4 – Focus on What You Want – Set your mind to focus on the things you want as opposed to what you don’t want or have in your life. It can be all too easy to tell yourself that you want to be healthier and fitter but you don’t have the money to do so. If finance is an issue, then do free exercise such as walking, running and bodyweight exercises. Switch out current unhealthy food for healthier food such as bananas, potatoes, rice and green vegetables which are cheaper. You can do it as long as you put your mind to it.
5 – Smile – This may seem silly and peculiar at first but it is such an easy step that you can do instantly. Even if you are not smiling or laughing about something you can choose to smile right now. Try it! The simple act of smiling, even if you don’t necessarily have anything to smile about, can instantly change the way you feel internally. Smile at other people, smile at the silly things in life and always find time to do things in your life that make you smile. Make a healthy and hearty dinner that makes you smile from deep within. Choose to do exercise that makes you feel amazing and leaves you with a smile.
“Positive anything is better than negative nothing.” ~ Elbert Hubbard
Life can be easy and enjoyable when we choose to focus on the good parts. If we constantly choose to focus on the bad then we will always be filled with doom and gloom. You can make that choice to have an amazing day every single day packed with energy, delicious healthy food, exercise you enjoy and a body you are happy with, all without the negative connotations.