How many times have you thought, "It doesn't get any better than this!" How many times have you actually said to someone, "It doesn't get any better than this!"
Make a conscious decision to use this thought as many times a week or a day as you can. Don't wait for a major accomplishment in your life to verbalize this thought. See how many times you can express it in your day-to-day living.
Everyday Things
This thought can come from the simple things in life. It doesn't have to be a major event. If we change our attitude to one where the simple things are ones we cherish we will be much happier. Simple things like:
- Enjoying lunch with a friend
- Walking with that special someone in your life
- A child's hug
- Someone who thanks you for helping them
- Reading a good book
- Watching a sunrise or sunset
- Watching birds come to a feeder
- Watching children laugh and play
- Waking up in the morning and feeling well
An Attitude Change
When I first heard this expression, I started using it at every opportunity I could. It made me appreciate all the little things that happen in my everyday life that made me happy. Things that previously I may have just taken for granted. It was amazing how my attitude changed to one that recognized more of the blessings in my life.
"Happiness consists more in small conveniences of pleasures
that occur every day,
than in great pieces of good fortune
that happen but seldom to a man on the course of his life."
Benjamin Franklin
Life is full of nuances and bumps, and slides and hills. There is always a challenge to meet, a mountain to climb, a river to cross but there is also the beauty of the moment, the peace of a babbling brook, the quiet solitude of sitting alone with nature, and the comfort found in friendship.
Another Strategy
One strategy that embellishes your total being from that of having negative thoughts to one where positive thinking prevails is to use a technique you have probably heard of before but one that has been proven to actually form a great habit. This mechanism is that of journaling. Here is how it works.
Start off each day by simply writing down one thing you are thankful for. This entry into your journal could be that you are thankful that you have a job that supports your ability to feed yourself and your family. The next day, your entry records another thing you are grateful for. Each time you write down something you are grateful for, you are signaling to your mind things that are positive, things that allow your mind to start focusing on the good not the negative.
Keep making journal entries every day for twenty-one days. In some cases, this record uses three entries per day. The point here is that the more things you write per day, the more your mind will move towards looking for the positive and thus categorically relegating the negatives to the back of your mind. By the end of twenty-one days, you will most likely find that your mind has been trained to now look towards everything that is good and positive and thus not focus on anything negative or pessimistic.
This procedure of positive journaling has been used in corporations to change the outlook and positive attributes of many of its employees. Do not dismiss the power of this technique thinking that it is just to common or ordinary practice that cannot work. The opposite is true for this simple but powerful strategy.
