Today I continue to share chapter 7 Developing a Positive Mindset from my bestselling book ‘How to Develop World Class Mental Resilience’ and today it’s part 2.
One of the most prominent advocates of positive thinking is Professor Martin Seligman – an American psychologist famous for his work on learned optimism. His work emphasises happiness rather than success and he believes that optimism is one of the most important factors.
A positive frame of mind can help you in many ways, such as:
- Helping you to expect success and not failure
- Making you feel inspired
- Giving you the strength not to give up if you encounter obstacles on your way
- Making you look at failure and problems as blessings in disguise
- Believing in yourself and in your abilities
- Enabling you to show self-esteem and confidence
- Making you look for solutions, instead of dwelling on problems
- Making you see and recognise opportunities
- Helping you achieve goals and attain success
- Bringing more happiness into your life
- Helping you to produce more energy
- Increasing your faith in your abilities and brings hope for a brighter future
- Giving you the ability to inspire and motivate yourself and others
- Encountering fewer obstacles and difficulties in your daily life
- Getting more respect and love from people
Health benefits of positive thinking include:
- Lowering stress levels
- Improving your body’s immune system
- Making you more resilient and to develop the ability to overcome life’s difficulties
- Bringing more happiness and respect from other people
- Increasing your life span
- Creating greater inner power and strength to inspire and motivate yourself and others
- Reducing depression
“Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be.” Abraham Lincoln
Story
I spotted this article and it is a story of an amazing woman who is a driving instructor at 95 years of age! This is a great way to demonstrate the power of a positive mindset.
Britain’s oldest driving instructor has passed her 95th birthday and has no plans to stop. Laura Thomas has got 1,000 pupils through the test over 76 years. She started driving in 1938 when her brother bought her a car for Christmas.
Laura passed her test two months later and started giving her friends tips on how they could do the same. Mother-of-two Laura’s reputation spread by word of mouth and she was bombarded by requests for driving lessons.
The great-grandmother has never advertised her services but has enjoyed a steady stream of customers for almost eight decades. She has also never used dual controls in her car and never had an accident. Laura said she had taught nearly ‘all the drivers’ in Pembroke Dock, West Wales – and none needed more than two tests.
She is aiming to join Britain’s exclusive ‘100 club’ of centenarians who are still on the roads and says you’re never too old to drive along as you have your ‘head screwed on.’
Widow Laura has no plans to hang up her L-plates and can still reduce teenagers to tears with her ‘old school’ teaching technique.
This is a great example of the Power of a Positive Mindset. Not only is Laura still driving at 95 years of age, but she is still teaching people to drive! It’s quite amazing, and with her positive mindset I can see her driving for years to come.
Summary
- Positive thinking is a range of ideas and techniques associated with the psychology of achievement.
- It is a powerful tool for transforming your inner self into a health-generating and self-healing entity.
- All of our feelings, beliefs and knowledge are based on our internal thoughts and we are in control of these processes.
- We can choose to be positive or negative, enthusiastic or dull, active or passive.
- Such choices are habits, developed over a lifetime and shaped by the feedback of others and also by our own self-talk.
- We must change our inner conversations and learn to think optimistically.
- Positive thinking is an optimistic state of mind.
- It brings inner satisfaction, peace and better health, improves relationships and attracts success into your life.
- Positive thinkers visualise what they want to happen, not what they wish to avoid.
- They are able to develop a mindset that empowers, rather than limits, their potential.
Next week I am concluding chapter 7 with a great ACTION PLAN to help you develop a positive mindset.
Thoughts for the week:
- After reading this week’s blog can you see the benefits of a positive mindset?
- This is something everyone can develop over time with the right techniques.
- This week can I encourage you to start working on your mindset.
- Next week I will share a great action plan to help you to do this.
Well that’s it for this week have a wonderful weekend and stay healthy.
Warm regards
John
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