Staying Positive

I read a lot of articles about unemployment rates, statistics, predictions of the future, etc... And from personal experience, it can be pretty hard to stay positive with all the negativity out there.

People have asked me, "so why is staying positive so important?" (why am I always talking about being positive?). Simple answer is that from past experience, companies are not looking to hire negative people. If I had to choose between hiring two people with the same skill set with one smiling and telling me about their excitement about working and the other telling me how tough life was and how much they hated their last employer - guess who would get hired? And when you are out of work, it's easy to become negative (trust me, it happens to a lot of people).

So here is my advice on how to stay positive - these are the things I do personally:

1. Don’t watch the news: Don't read the news either. In fact, stay away from the news completely. Check out the paper on Sunday if you want to check out some current issues/events. Otherwise, the news is just a downer. I don’t think you should be blind to what is going on in the world, but hearing the unemployment rate pounded at you ten times a day is not doing anyone any good.
2. Associate with Positive People: Don’t hang out with Debbie Downer. Associate with people who are uplifting, who smile, and who also have a positive outlook. Positive and negative are contagious. If you spend your time around negative people, chances are it will rub off on you.
3. Live Healthy: Keeping active and physically fit is an important one for me. This really helps me stay positive. Same with eating right. If I sit around eating junk food and not exercising, I will be a pretty unhappy person.
4. Do Something Good For Someone Else: Doing good deeds can be very uplifting. Could be volunteering for your favorite charity. Or could be so simple as doing something nice for your neighbor. There is no better way to get positive vibes going then helping someone else in need. An old book I read said to do something that will "make someone’s day". I would suggest trying to do something like this every day. (And remember - doing something for someone does not mean spending money. It just means lending a hand or putting out some type of effort to help them.)

Those are the tricks I use to keep positive. Does it work all the time? Of course not. But I can fairly say I spend a majority of my time feeling positive about the future – even in the face of tough circumstances. If you have any tricks of your own, please share them!