If you have ever noticed yourself expecting the worst without clear reasons why, you were probably struggling with a negative thought habit called pessimism.
Rampant pessimism can be annoying at the least and chronically destructive at worst. It can take over your mood, mind-set, career, relationships, and life in general, making it impossible to hope for anything good.
As you probably know, your mood and mind-set activate the Law of Attraction. Whatever you focus on and expect most of the time is what you will get.
Can you see how pessimism can attract some really unpleasant things into your life? The more you expect the worst, the more of the “worst” you will get. The more you focus on the horrible things that might happen, the more you draw them into your life!
The good news is that pessimism is just a habit that can be changed with a little conscious effort.
Below you’ll find three simple ways to start turning pessimism into optimism:
1) Challenge the doom predictions.
When your mind is ruled by a pessimistic outlook, you automatically imagine the worst possible outcome and hold it as your expectation. Even worse, you usually have no evidence to support your belief that things will go wrong, you are just choosing to think they will.
Turn this around by challenging any prediction for doom or gloom that comes out of your mouth. The moment you catch yourself thinking or saying something pessimistic, pause and ask yourself, “Why do I think that’s true? How do I really know it’s true? Am I willing to suspend judgment and wait and see what happens?”
The more you challenge these negative predictions, the more you open to greater possibilities.
2) Choose a better outcome.
You can also take a more proactive role in choosing a better outcome. Instead of just opening to greater possibilities, CHOOSE the outcome you want! Just like you can choose to think, “This isn’t going to turn out well,” you can also choose to think, “This is going to be so great!”
Create a new habit of always focusing on and choosing the BEST possible outcome in every situation. Even if the absolute best outcome doesn’t come to pass, you might still end up with something nearly as good. (How will you know if you don’t even try?)
When you first begin to do this, you may feel a little silly, and maybe even downright uncomfortable. However, keep up with the practice and remember that an optimistic attitude will become a habit too!
If it helps, turn it into a game you play to amuse yourself. Try to come up with the most outlandish, hilarious outcome to every situation, and keep a record of what happens when you do.
3) Focus on the why.
Your underlying beliefs often fuel your pessimism. For example, if you hold the belief that you will never succeed at your goals, you may find yourself thinking pessimistic thoughts whenever you try to accomplish something. “This will never work,” “I can’t do this, who am I kidding?” and so on.
Whenever you catch yourself thinking pessimistic thoughts like these, ask the question, “Why?”
Why do you think you’ll never succeed at your goals? Why do you believe your plans will never work?
Even better, ask yourself why they might work after all. Ask yourself why you DO have what it takes to accomplish whatever your heart desires.
If you make a genuine effort to ponder these questions, the answers might surprise you!
You will find that optimism can quickly become a strong habit, just like pessimism can. It’s just a matter of consciously choosing the thoughts you want to think and persisting with them until your subconscious mind gets the message and takes over.