Seeing the glass as half-empty is an attitude that will only bring you down and tarnish the quality of your life. Where’s the fun in a negative mindset anyway? You constantly feel low, every experience feels like a punishment, and you’re never happy.
Implement forgiveness instead of self-blame after making mistakes
One of the things you can never change is the fact that you’re human. Our nature is to be imperfect and flawed, and there is nothing wrong with that. If you made a regretful choice, forgive yourself, live with it and move forward knowing you will do better next time. When you think about it, you’re criticizing yourself for being a human being! We will never be perfect, and it’s a waste of time and effort to meet a standard that can never be reached. If you have done the best you could, then there is nothing to blame yourself for at all.
Acknowledge your insecurities and self-criticism
This step requires some serious self-reflection. What do you criticize the most about yourself? Regardless if it’s a physical trait or a quality you wish to have, lacking such does not devalue your worth. You need to confront your insecurities and what makes you uncomfortable with yourself. They are catalysts for self-improvement, and will only cripple you if you allow it.
Implement positive affirmations into your daily thought process
While saying positive affirmations may feel silly at first, they are tremendously impacting to both your self-esteem and perception on the world around you. Loving and praising yourself isn’t arrogance, it’s self-respect and care. Don’t be afraid to acknowledge and be proud of your strengths, accomplishments, and incredible qualities.
Stop playing the comparison game
Comparing yourself to others will only leave you envious and unsatisfied. Everyone has their own unique experiences and circumstances, which makes it impossible to ever live another person’s life. Take social media, for example. People develop a technology addiction and obsession with it because the supposed visual perfection of an Instagram model or public figure’s life fuels them to drastically change things about their life. A perfect life doesn’t exist – it never will. Everyone is going at their own pace, and the only journey you need to focus on is your own.
Silence your negative inner dialogue
How do you speak to yourself versus a loved one? Most likely with criticism rather than love. Instead of beating yourself up with disappointment and blame, use words of compassion and kindness. Accept your insecurities and mistakes, but still build yourself up from them instead of giving them the power to crush you. Most importantly, when a negative thought invades your mind, immediately turn it into a positive one.
Don’t assume the worst
The worst will not always happen, contrary to your internal beliefs. Always expecting something bad to happen is unconsciously trying to set it up an event for failure from the get-go. In conjunction, you shouldn’t expect the best to happen either. Instead, be realistic: whatever happens, will happen. You can never change that, and no one knows what the future holds. While those concepts are intimidating, they are a universal truth. They need to be accepted. Otherwise, you will never have an inherent sense of peace. It’s completely understandable to be afraid of what the future holds, but if you knew everything that had already happened – is that really living at all?
Stop victimizing yourself to experiences
Everyone in this world has suffered pain and loss, and you are not any different or special with your own experiences. Instead of victimizing yourself to past experiences, use them as events that taught you lessons and made you grow as a person. If you constantly throw a pity party, nothing about the situation or you will change. That’s not to say your personal experiences have no value – they do – rather, they cannot be used as excuses for the quality or dissatisfaction you may feel about your life.
Practice gratitude every day
Upon waking up, immediately think of three things or people that need to be appreciated. When you neglect to appreciate the good in your life, you completely diminish the value of them. Furthermore, doing so causes you to develop a sense of entitlement to happiness, become selfish, and be continuously dissatisfied since what you currently have never feels like enough.
A negative mindset cannot be overcome within a day. It takes times, effort, and patience – but surpassing it is always worth the struggle. You have the ability to live a fulfilling life – don’t waste time being afraid of the future or criticizing yourself for things that can never change.