What I have learned from positive thinkers is this. They have negative thoughts like everyone else. However, they have learned to dispute or argue with their pessimism. In other words, they don’t allow negative thinking to gain traction or momentum. When you surrender to negative thinking – the more powerful it becomes. This is important because negative thinking is truly destructive to our future potential. Negative thinking can prevent us from taking the action necessary to achieve our goals and objectives. In addition, negativity undermines our confidence and may even cause us to give up at the very first sign of difficulty.

The next time you are in a cycle of negativity, here are some questions that can help you break free!

What is the evidence for my negativity?

Make a commitment to avoid jumping to conclusions about our circumstances before we analyze the facts. If you don’t have real evidence, you could be assigning meaning to what’s occurring without validity. One way to combat negative thinking is to resist giving significance to unclear situations. Negative thinking is frequently caused by a lack of understanding, or not having all the information. Positive thinkers build their fortitude on the facts.

Is my perspective distorted?

When something negative happens, it is easy to lose perspective. We take a specific situation and make it global. To dispute negative thoughts, resist the tendency to see a setback as permanent, and understand that it does not have relevance in all areas of your life. When facing a molehill, keep it in perspective so it doesn’t turn into a mountain.

When have I overcome negative circumstances in the past?

When we are in the midst of negativity, we often forget what we should remember and remember what we should forget. If you are filled with self-doubt fueled by negative thinking, dispute those thoughts by reliving the times we have successfully overcome in the past. By doing this we make sure we are not underestimating ourselves and overestimating our obstacles.

Is it truth or an excuse?

This question requires being an objective self-observer. It has been my experience that we can use negative thinking as a way to avoid confronting our fear. When we scrutinize our negative thoughts, we realize that we are using our thinking as an excuse. Here is a question that may help. Are my negative thoughts caused by something external or internal? The answer will help you determine if your negativity is based on something real or imagined.

Over the years, I have had countless audience members tell me they don’t believe they are positive thinkers because negative thoughts run through their minds. I tell them this; positive thinkers have pessimist thoughts, but they choose to dispute them. Remember, we control our attitude. We can either agree with negative thoughts or argue against them. The choice is ours!