Think Positively - And a Big Thank You!

Mind Tools Newsletter 99 - Apr 29th, 2008 This newsletter is published by Mind Tools Ltd of 2nd Floor, 145-157 St John Street, London, EC1V 4PY, UK. You have received it because you have subscribed to our double opt-in newsletter. To subscribe or unsubscribe, just click the links at the bottom of this email

Contents: What's New? Are You a Positive or Negative Thinker? In the Club A Final Note

We start our newsletter this week with a huge "thank you" for the wonderful response to our 2008 Survey on Personal Effectiveness!

As the survey comes to a close, we have the fascinating task of analyzing your views and comments, and you'll be seeing the results over the coming weeks and months. We're already excited by some of the themes emerging, so watch this space for more. What's more, I really believe that you've just contributed to some really significant international research!

Congratulation to our Survey Prize Draw Winners!

As promised, we've selected our three Prize Draw winners at random from the readers who entered the survey by Tuesday 22 April. Congratulations to Regina Yhonjan from New Zealand, Barry Hall from the UK and Kerry Azar from Australia, who each win a US$100 Amazon.com gift certificate (we've emailed you to arrange delivery.) Enjoy your prizes!

What's New: Think Positively!

Moving on, are you usually looking out for possibilities and positives, or do you tend to worry about potential pitfalls and barriers to success? You know that it takes more than positive thinking to achieve what you want in life, but positive thinking sure does help!

In this week's newsletter, we feature our new positive and negative thinking quiz. This helps you uncover your normal thinking style, so that you can change your mindset, positively. Take the quiz online, and your scores will be calculated for you automatically - just click the link within the article. Or print this newsletter out, and score the test manually.

Next, we have our second free article since the last newsletter, which looks at Your Reflected Best Self™ . When you consider your key areas for personal improvement, do you focus on your strengths, or are you always worrying about your weaknesses? If you tend to work on your weaknesses, think again! This article will help you learn how to play to your strengths. Click here to read it!

Enjoy this week's articles, and have fun thinking positively!

James & Rachel

James Manktelow and Rachel Thompson
MindTools.com
Mind Tools – Essential skills for an excellent career!

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Editors' Choice Article:

Are You a Positive or Negative Thinker?

Learn About - and Change - How You Think

	Positive people are more successful.

"A man is but the product of his thoughts.
What he thinks, he becomes."
Mahatma Gandhi

"Positive thinking will let you do everything better
than negative thinking will."

Zig Ziglar - Personal development guru

These are two powerful quotes. Combined, they tell us that if we think positively, we're likely to enjoy positive results. Negative thinking, on the other hand, can lead to outcomes we don't want.

Positive and negative thoughts can become self-fulfilling prophecies: What we expect can often come true.

If you start off thinking you will mess up a task, the chances are that you will: You may not try hard enough to succeed, you won't attract support from other people, and you may not perceive any results as good enough.

Positive thinking, on the other hand, is often associated with positive actions and outcomes. You're drawn to, and you focus on, the positive aspects of a situation. You have hope and faith in yourself and others, and you work and invest hard to prove that your optimism is warranted. You'll enthuse others, and they may well "pitch in" to help you. This makes constructive outcomes all the more likely.

When it comes down to it, positive, optimistic people are happier and healthier, and enjoy more success than those who think negatively. The key difference between them is how they think about and interpret the events in their life.

So, how do you think about your successes and failures? Do you have a predictable thinking pattern? Find out below.

Are You a Positive or Negative Thinker?

Take this short quiz to determine what kind of thinker you are. Click the 'Calculate my total' button at the foot of the quiz to get your scores.

© Mind Tools Ltd, 2008.

Instructions:

Question		Not at all	Rarely	Some times	Often	Very Often
1	When my boss asks to speak with me, I instinctively assume he/she wants to discuss a problem or give me negative feedback.
2	When I experience real difficulty at work/home, other aspects of my life tend to be painted with the same negative brush.
3	When I experience a setback, I tend to believe the obstacle will endure for the long-term, e.g. "The funding didn't come through, so I guess that means they hate the project. All that work for nothing."
4	When a team I am on is functioning poorly, I believe the cause is short-term and has a straightforward solution, e.g. "Boy we're not working well, if we can fix [.], we'll do much better!"
5	When I'm not chosen for an assignment I really want, I tend to believe that I just don't have the specific skills they are looking for right now, as opposed to thinking I am generally unskilled.
6	When something happens that I don't like or appreciate, I can tend to conclude that the cause is widespread in nature and will continue to plague me, e.g. "My assistant didn't 'cc' me on that email she sent to my boss. Administrative assistants are all out to prove how much smarter they are than their supervisors."
7	When I perform very well on an assignment, I believe that it's because I'm generally talented and smart, as opposed to thinking I am good in that one very specific area.
8	When I receive a reward or recognition, I can tend to figure that luck or fate played more of a role than my actual work or skill, e.g. "They asked me to be the key note speaker at the conference next year. I guess the other guys were all busy."
9	When I come up with a really good idea, I am surprised by my creativity. I figure it is my lucky day, and caution myself not to get used to the feeling.
10	When something bad happens at work, I see the contributions that everyone made to the mistake, as opposed to thinking that I am incompetent and to blame.
11	After winning an award/recognition/ contract, I believe it's because the competition is not as good as I am, e.g. "We won that large contract against two strong competitors. We're simply better than they are."
12	As the leader, when my team completes a project, I tend to attribute the success to the hard work and dedication of the team members, as opposed to my skilled leadership.
13	When I make a decision that proves to be successful, it's because I have expertise on the subject and analyzed that particular problem really well, as opposed to being generally a strong decision maker.
14	When I achieve a long term and personally challenging goal, I congratulate myself, and think about all the skills I used to be successful.
	Total of weighted scores (see instructions):

Score Interpretation

Score	Comment
14-31	Yikes! It must feel like there is a rain cloud that hangs overhead all day. You have gotten yourself into the habit of seeing things as your fault and you’ve learned to give up your control in many situations. Taking this quiz is the first step toward turning your pessimism around. Read the rest of this article carefully, and use the exercises daily. Start now!
32-50	You try to be optimistic and positive however some situations get the better of you. Identify your triggers for negative thinking and use rational thinking exercises to become naturally more optimistic.
51-70	Great job! You have a generally positive and optimistic outlook on life. You don’t take things personally and you are able to see that setbacks won’t ruin the rest of your life.

Turn Negatives into Positives

The first step in changing negative thinking is to become aware of it. For many of us, negative thinking is a bad habit - and we may not even know we're doing it!

Consider this example: The guy on the subway who just made a face is surely directing his behavior at you. When the receptionist doesn't greet you in the morning, you must have done something to anger her. again! You go straight to the coffee machine, because it's Monday morning and you just know you'll be solving problems until lunchtime. When you finally get to your desk, your assistant is waiting for you. "Oh no," you think. "What has he done now? The first problem of the day. yippee!"

If you're feeling bad after reading this, imagine how it would feel to surround yourself with that much negativity. Then ask yourself if this is the way you tend to think in your own life?

Dr Martin Seligman, who has been described as America's most influential psychologist, has done extensive research on thought patterns. In particular, he looks at the impact of an optimistic versus pessimistic outlook on life and success.

Seligman says we explain events using three basic dimensions of Permanence, Pervasiveness and Personalization, with optimistic people on one end of the scale and pessimistic people on the other. We look at these below.

Permanence (Questions 3, 4, 9, 11)

Believing that something we are experiencing is either permanent or temporary. A low score implies that you think bad times will carry on forever. A high score shows confidence that you'll be able to get things back on course quickly.

Pessimist: I lost my job and I'll never find one as good again. No point even looking!

Optimist: I lost my job. Thank goodness there are other opportunities I can explore!

Pervasiveness (Questions 2, 5, 6, 7 and 13)

Believing that situational factors cause an effect or that the effect is evidence of more universal factors at work. A low score shows that you tend to think that if you've experienced a problem in one place, you'll experience that problem wherever you go.

Pessimist: I lost my job. Companies are all the same; all they care about is money. I don't know why I bother putting in any effort at all.

Optimist: I lost my job. It's too bad our company has to reinvent itself to stay competitive. Thankfully I learned some great transferable skills!

Personalization (Questions 1, 8, 10, 12 and 14)

Believing that something about you influenced the outcome or that something external to you caused it. A low score indicates that you tend to blame yourself for bad things, rather than attributing the cause to more general factors.

Pessimist: I lost my job. If I had been a decent employee they would have found a new job for me.

Optimist: I lost my job. I gave it my all, however they just can't use my skill set right now.

Re-shape Your Thinking

Your answers to the questions in this quiz can show whether you have a positive or negative pattern of thinking. They're also great starting points to become more aware of your thoughts - and the effect they have on your life.

When you're more aware of the way you think, you can take action to use positive situations to your advantage, and re-shape the negative ones. The goal is to think positively, regardless of the situation, and make a conscious effort to see opportunities instead of obstacles.

So, in our example, if you immediately think the receptionist is mad at you because she didn't say hello, how rational is that? Could she have been busy or distracted when you walked by? Did you say hello to her? Maybe she wasn't feeling well, or she was in a negative mood herself. These are all more rational reasons for her behavior than simply assuming that you did something wrong.

To help you start thinking positively, see our comprehensive article on Thought Awareness, Rational Thinking, and Positive Thinking. This is a "must read" for everyone, even very positive thinkers, because it shows why positive thinking is so important, and it discusses how to turn negative thought patterns into positive ones.

Persistent negative thinking can cause mental health problems, including depression. While these positive thinking techniques have been shown to have a positive effect, they are for guidance only, and readers should take the advice of suitably qualified health professionals if they are experiencing persistent unhappiness.

Key Points

Becoming more positive is always a good thing. Using this quiz, you can identify where and how much you tend to think negatively. The more aware you are of your thoughts, the better you'll be able to change them to emphasize the positive.

Positive thinking usually attracts positive people, events, and outcomes. If you want to create an environment where you're successful and satisfied, you'll need the power of positive thinking on your side.

You may not be aware of all of your negative thoughts and the effect they have on your life, however, by taking some time to understand your own thought patterns, you can challenge those irrational, negative thoughts - and replace them with more positive, optimistic and empowering messages.

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In the Career Excellence Club...

Helping people like you - and organizations like yours - perform excellently, the Mind Tools Career Excellence Club brings members new skill building resources every working day, and you can see those of the past two week listed below. If you're already a member, simply click on the links provided below to access the recent resources in the list.

If you are not yet a member, find out more about how membership could benefit you with our club tour, or find out about how it could benefit your organization with our new tour for organizations.

28 Apr Mon	Thomas Pyzdek: Six Sigma Learn about Six Sigma, the set of management practices developed to radically improve quality. Find out when can you use it, how it helps, and what a 'black belt' does. Premium Members' Expert Interview Premium Members: Read More >> Take the Club Tour >>
24 Apr Thur	Please Yourself Being helpful to others is great, but sometimes we’re so busy thinking about others that we forget about ourselves. Learn how to find the right balance. All Members' Coaching Clinic Members: Read More >> Take the Club Tour >>
23 Apr Wed	Business Process Reengineering - Using radical change to improve performance When you hear "business process reengineering," do you think of 1990s downsizing? There's more to BPR than that. Learn about it, and how it's used. Premium Members' New Tool Read More >> Take the Club Tour >>
22 Apr Tue	Prioritization It's obvious that you can achieve so much more by focusing on priorities, but which tasks ARE the priorities? Learn how to prioritize your To Do list. All Members' Featured Favorite Members: Read More >> Take the Club Tour >>
21 Apr Mon	The Power of Body Language, By Tonya Reiman Find out about this book on interpreting other people's body language, and learn how to ensure that your body language is giving the messages you intend. Premium Members' Book Insight Premium Members: Read More >> Take the Club Tour >>
17 Apr Thur	Building Effective Teams A group is not a team. People can work side by side on a common goal and never achieve the results that a team can. What's the difference? Participate in this scenario training and find out. All Members' Bite-Sized Training™ Members: Read More >> Take the Club Tour >>
16 Apr Wed	The Peter Principle - Avoiding promoting people to a level of incompetence In traditional hierarchical organizations, success in one role is often rewarded with promotion to another. This approach contains a huge flaw. Find out what this is and how to avoid it. Premium Members' New Tool Read More >> Take the Club Tour >>

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A Final Note from James

As our 99th newsletter comes to a close, I hope you've found our positive thinking test useful - it's such an important subject, and you'll be so much happier, more confident and more successful if you can beat that negative thinking habit!

We'll be back in two weeks' from now with a very special edition of the Mind Tools newsletter, with articles on risk management and emotional intelligence.

Wishing you an excellent two weeks. And once again, thank you for such a fantastic response to our survey!

James

James Manktelow
Click here to email
MindTools.com
Mind Tools – Essential skills for an excellent career!

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