“I have never, ever focused on he negative of things. I always look at the positive .”
– sonia sotomayor
When you go through your daily life, do you find yourself complaining? If so, how many complaints do you think you have in an average day? Do you complain about your job, kids, and spouse? What about your weight, house, or car?
One day while driving to work, I was right in the middle of complaining about traffic and my commute time. As I was about the drive into the parking lot, I saw a man walking down the street. He was dressed nicely, and it’s quite possible he was walking to one of the nearby office buildings.
Now I didn’t know this man’s destination, but I was thankful that I had a car and didn’t have to walk on roads with no sidewalks while wearing nice clothes. I was reminded that not everyone has a car to drive to work. Also, not everyone has a working car or enough money to put gas in the car. Hell, some people may not even have a job!
Before I knew it, I had rattled off a handful of gratuitous thoughts some from this one thought. While I didn’t know it, I was looking for the good. The process was quick, painless, and left me in a grateful position afterwards.
Have you gone through this process? No, that’s ok. Here are a few tips and benefits of Looking for the good.
Start Small
Look around you and find one thing, just one thing. Take a look around you and focus. Here are few prompts you can use:
- The sun is out
- You woke up
- You heard your children laugh
- Your spouse hugged you tight
- You ate today
Be present and take time to feel and acknowledge the positive thought. Then, accept the positive emotions that come from the positive thought.
Aim For The Good
There are ups and downs in life. Sometimes, you have bad experiences mixed with good experiences. It’s not easy, but you can usually learn from the bad things that happen to you. You may need to intentionally seek out the good that comes from bad experiences. Some questions you can ask yourself include:
- What did I learn from this?
- How has this made me stronger?
- What have a gained from this experience?
- How did this make me grow as a person?
Other times, it may simple be unimaginable to take the good with the bad. And that’s ok. During those extremely rough times, remember to be kind to yourself. Take the time to process your emotions and look for the good when you can. Aim for the good so the good can return to you.
How Looking for the Good Benefits You
While tough, there are benefits of focusing on the good. These benefits include:
- It’s free
- You can complete this process anywhere
- You can improve your mood
- You can move through life with a positive mindset
You can see this process Is process is fairly effortless. After you’ve done this a couple of time, keep going. Turn this into a daily habit. Look for the good when you wake up or before going to sleep. In the midst of a complaint, pause and look for the good in your situation. Let this be your new normal and let the good times roll!
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