A lot has happened since my last blog. We remain very optimistic about our team and our prospects going into the final six weeks of the season.
Today I am going to talk about being optimistic. Nothing is more important than being optimistic and acting with a positive attitude.
If you struggle to be confident and positive, than simply act as if you are. The saying “fake it until you make it” seems like a cheesy idea but it will help here. Act as the person you want and hope to become. Do what you think that type of person would do. If you want to be a national champion, train like a national champion would train. Talk to yourself as you would imagine an optimistic person would. Eventually you will grow into the type of person you want to be.
The majority of great philosophers agree that ultimately you will get what you constantly think about.
That can be good or bad. It all depends on you and what thoughts you entertain in your mind. But if it is true, think positively!
“As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” – Proverbs 23:7
This doesn’t mean that we are doomed to every negative thought that enters our mind. We are human and naturally negative thoughts will enter our minds often. It’s what you do with those negative thoughts that is important. If you take a negative thought and put it on “repeat” mode in your mind-that’s a problem. If you take a negative thought, feed it and entertain it– that’s a problem. That gives the negative thought power. Instead, you should recognize a negative thought immediately and replace it with a prepared thought.
Have an answer ready to replace negative thoughts.
Feed your mind with positive thoughts.
To train yourself to be a positive thinker, you need to have purpose and goals. You need to be realistic in your goals. You need to set goals that you can control. To be confident you must be able to focus on what you can control. Ultimately you want to win, everyone does. Ultimately you want to be the state, national or world champion. So how do you do that? I should ask, how do you make your very best attempt at those goals?
You do by doing the most you can with what you have and what you can control. When you set your goals before competition they need to be effort based. It’s like wishing for a toilet seat made of gold. Nice goal but how are you going to make it happen. Focus on what is going to make it happen, not the end result.
It will be very difficult to be positive when you set your expectations and goals on things that you cannot control. You can’t control whether you are going to win or not. But you can control whether you are going to fight, hustle, be disciplined to wrestle the match in your strong positions, and simply never give up. Those are things you can control. Those are the things that you need to focus on if you want to be confident.
Focusing on effort is a sign of strength. Accepting your absolute best effort as success is strength. That idea is divine in nature. Few are willing to do this. You can.
Don’t expect to be confident if you are putting your focus into things that you cannot control.
“We must learn to become creators of circumstances and not creatures of them.” – M. Russell Ballard
The next important principle to be optimistic is to develop self-discipline. A lack of discipline is what keeps the majority of people from reaching their potential. Talent and hard work go out the window without discipline. You must have the discipline to follow through with the difficult things that stand between you and your goals. It’s hard to be optimistic if you haven’t paid the price.
“For my part, I have concluded that the quality which sets one man apart from another- the factor which lifts one man to every achievement to which he reasonably aspires while the other is caught in the slough of mediocrity for all the years of his life—is not talent, nor formal education, nor luck, nor intellectual brilliance, but is rather the successful man’s greater capacity for self-discipline.” — Benjamin N. Woodson
My final thought is to have faith in youself. Why would you not have faith in yourself? You are literally a son or daughter of God! If you remember that, you will surely know that you can do anything! Your goals should be simply to take what God has given you and do the very best that you can with it. It’s simple, if you allow it to be.
“Who you are is God’s gift to you, who you become, is your gift to God!” -unknown
The mere thought of knowing that you are in fact a son or daughter of God should have you bouncing off the walls with optimism. What can a son or daughter of God not accomplish?! Go for it!
Cael Sanderson
This is a really cool outlook on staying positive with your life. No matter what field of work you are in- it is really cool to read this article and reflect on your own life.
Have a great night
