{"id":6612,"date":"2011-07-05T22:30:20","date_gmt":"2011-07-06T06:30:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/?p=6612"},"modified":"2013-09-10T15:01:56","modified_gmt":"2013-09-10T23:01:56","slug":"how-to-think-more-positively-rational-about-yourself-and-your-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/how-to-think-more-positively-rational-about-yourself-and-your-future\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Think More Positively Rational about Yourself and Your Future"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Herm Albright once quipped, \u201c\u201cA positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.\u201d\u00a0 Many thousands have praised the importance of possessing a positive attitude, but can one truly be positive about anything without first being positive about oneself? Any truly positive outlook on life always begins first with a truly positive outlook on yourself.\u00a0 Any truly positive outlook always begins with thinking positively rational.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Being Positive Does Not Mean Being Irrational!<\/strong><\/p>\n

I once used to think that being positive meant that I had to be irrational.\u00a0 Let me explain.\u00a0 When I was younger, I had a skin problem that caused me some measure of embarrassment in high school.\u00a0 For about six years, the skin problem caused me to start thinking rather negatively about myself.\u00a0 Every time I heard someone talk about being positive, it would irritate me because I thought: How can I be positive about myself when I have this skin problem! The answer lies in thinking positively rational.\u00a0 Does my skin problem define everything about me? Am I disqualifying everything else about me that is not problematic? Am I thinking in all or nothing terms? You see, the answer to many people\u2019s life problems are simply irrational beliefs about themselves.<\/p>\n

Rational is Positive (In the Right Context)<\/strong><\/p>\n

On the other side of the pendulum, if things are really bad in your life, thinking rationally about yourself may at first seem negative. <\/em> The fact is that if we are in a mess, it\u2019s probably our fault.\u00a0 Wouldn\u2019t thinking rationally about yourself make you feel worse about yourself? Well yes, it that\u2019s where you left your thinking.\u00a0 You do not leave your thinking in your areas of defeat or the areas you do not like about yourself.\u00a0 If you got yourself into a mess, isn\u2019t rational to believe that you can get yourself out? Isn\u2019t it rational to believe that you too can make right choices for a better future? Yes, you can! It takes being rational to be truly positive.<\/p>\n

Seeing Yourself Rationally and Positively Will Increase Self Image and Success<\/strong><\/p>\n

Most of the people I know who are not successful do not think rationally about themselves or positive about their futures.\u00a0 Here\u2019s a story to help illustrate what I mean:\u00a0 The person who always seems to be self-sabotaging themselves.\u00a0 This self-sabotaging person with a poor self-image goes around all day wondering why everyone else is so much happier and more successful than they are.\u00a0 They struggle daily with feelings of inferiority, insecurity, and social anxiety. \u00a0Why does that person always seem to get all the breaks? Why am I so stupid? Why does no one like me? He asks these kinds of questions daily and feels hateful towards other successful people.\u00a0 What\u2019s his problem? His problem is simple: He is thinking negatively irrational instead of positively rational.\u00a0 Did you catch the irrationality of his questions?<\/p>\n

Why does that person seem to get all the breaks? They get all <\/em>the breaks? Does he even know what breaks<\/em> this person got? What about all the hard work the successful person has done?<\/p>\n

Why am I so stupid? Stupid is simply a label some people like to use to describe a person\u2019s behavior.\u00a0 Though we may feel <\/em>stupid sometimes, most of us are not stupid. <\/em>We may have made some bad choices, but we usually were operating from the best information we had at the time or we knew the right choice and failed to make the right choice.\u00a0 Either way, our IQ <\/em>is not the question.\u00a0 Thus, stupid is not the issue.<\/p>\n

Why does no one like me? No one likes you. <\/em>Really? Not even your mom? It\u2019s true that sometimes people are liked more by others than they like you or I.\u00a0 Most of the time, people simply like someone else more because that person shows more interest in them.\u00a0\u00a0 It has nothing to do with likeability.\u00a0 Likeability comes from liking yourself, which begins with thinking positively rational about yourself.<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n

I hope that I have opened some of your eyes to the idea of thinking positively rational about yourself and your life.\u00a0 If you will begin to think more rationally and positively about yourself, your life will dramatically change.\u00a0 You will feel happier, healthier, have more friendships, do better at work and do amazing things you may not have thought possible.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Joshua Shelton is a freelance blogger and founder of the site Break Through Self Image<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Related Articles:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Finding Bliss: How to Reverse Engineer Happiness <\/a><\/p>\n

The 6 Components of a Happy Life <\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many thousands have praised the importance of possessing a positive attitude, but can one truly be positive about anything without first being positive about oneself? Any truly positive outlook on life always begins first with a truly positive outlook on yourself. Any truly positive outlook always begins with thinking positively rational. 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