Identify What You Want And Set Goals

Most optimists have direction in their lives. They are not concerned about the future because they have solid plans in place for this. If you want to be an optimist then you need to know what you want and then do whatever is necessary to get it.

 

Identifying what you want

 

Most people don’t know what they want because they do not know the best way to identify this. It is not as difficult as you may think to identify the things you want in life. You just need to find some alone time, take a pen and some paper with you and ask yourself some questions.

 

You need to think about the different areas of your life that you want to improve. Some examples could be your wealth, your health, your career or business, your skills and so on. So, focus on each of the areas of life you want to tackle and ask yourself this question each time:

 

“What do I want to achieve with my [life area]?”

 

Each time you ask yourself this question you should come up with ideas. Your subconscious mind will help you here. Write down everything that comes to mind and don’t make any judgments. If you are struggling to come up with ideas then just ask the question again.

 

At the end of this exercise, you should have a list of the things that you want. You cannot achieve all of these at once so you need to whittle these down to one or two. Look at each idea and imagine how you will feel when you have achieved it. Make the feelings as strong as possible. Go for the ideas that have the strongest feelings associated with them.

 

It is fine to start with just one idea. If you take on too many ideas at once you are unlikely to achieve any of them. We recommend that the maximum number of ideas is three. 

 

Now Create your Goals

 

For each of the ideas that you have finally decided on, you need to create a goal for them. We recommend using the SMART goal setting process for this. The SMART acronym stands for:

 

·      Specific

·      Measurable

·      Achievable

·      Realistic 

·      Timed

 

It is essential that all of your goals are specific. Just wanting more money is not going to work. You need to specify the exact amount of money that you want to make. All of your goals need to be measurable so that you can track your progress. 

 

Don’t go for goals that are not achievable or realistic. You are not going to win a gold medal at the Olympics for running if you are in your fifties and overweight. Finally, you must add a deadline to all of your goals.

 

Add an Emotional Driver

 

To really spice up your goals and make you jump out of bed every day to achieve them, you need to add strong emotion into the mix. Think back to the reason why you chose your goals in the first place. What were the feelings that you experienced when you imagined that you had already achieved them?

 

Create Plans for your Goals

 

Now that you have your goals set you need to plan how you are going to achieve them. Your aim here is to come up with daily actions that will move you closer to your goals when you complete them. 

 

Other Ways To Give Your Optimism A Boost

There are numerous ways that you can give your optimism a boost. We have another five effective methods that you can use in this article. Boosting your optimism is something that you need to focus on if you want to be a true optimist. So, let’s get started with these methods, shall we?

 

1. Use Visualization to see your Best Self

 

If you don’t know how to visualize then use the many free resources online to learn how to do this. It is a very powerful tool that will help you with your optimism and other areas of your life. We recommend that you use visualization techniques to imagine your best self. This will really help to boost your optimism if you do it often enough.

 

Optimists usually set challenging goals for themselves and you can use visualization to help you here as well. Imagine that you have achieved a goal already and feel how good this is. Make your feelings as strong as you can. After a few visualization sessions your motivation levels will be extremely high to achieve your goals.

 

2. Use the Past as a Useful Reference

 

A lot of pessimists dwell on their past mistakes and this creates stress and tension for them. Accept that your past has gone and that it only really serves you as a useful reference. Just because you failed with something before does not mean that you will fail with it again. Learn from the mistakes you made in the past and then move on.

 

The only reason that your past will haunt you is if you let it. Don’t drag your past into your future. All of us make mistakes and all you can do is learn from this. Let go of the past and focus on being an optimist.

 

3. Use your Past for Reminiscing

 

One positive way that you can use the events of your past is to reminisce about the good things that you did. You are sure to have done something against the odds, so think back to this time and wallow in the glory. 

 

Any event in your past that made you happy is good to reminisce about. Think of the challenges you had at school or work and the people that you had relationships with. When you reminisce like this it can put you in a better mood and make you more confident about your future.

 

4. Create and Use Positive Affirmations

 

Creating your own set of positive affirmations and reciting them on a regular basis is a great way to boost your optimism. Each time that you read your affirmations out load (or in your head) you will feel an optimistic energy forming in your body.

 

You can use positive affirmations to reprogram your subconscious mind. This will help to strengthen your optimism. Be sure to read your affirmations when you get up in the morning as this will give you a great start to the day.

 

5. Listen to Music that makes you Optimistic

 

You will have certain songs that you like that really fill you with hope, energy and purpose. Usually, these songs have an association with special events in your life. Think about what these songs are and make sure that you can play them whenever you need to boost your optimism.

 

The Personality Benefits Of Optimism

Making the transition from pessimism to optimism can be a tough journey so you want to be sure that it is worth your time and effort. In this article, we will look at the personality benefits of optimism. This means how optimism will change your character so that you can make your life better than it is now.

 

Optimists are usually Achievers

 

As an optimist you are likely to have a high self-worth and total belief in your abilities. In contrast, a pessimist does not have a lot of faith on themselves or their abilities to get things done and achieve challenging goals.

 

Martin Seligman is considered to be a world leader in positive thinking. He believed that optimists are likely to achieve much more than pessimists and he set out to prove this. Seligman decided that he would analyze different sports teams to see what role positive energy played for them.

 

After analyzing a number of sports teams, Seligman concluded that those that were more optimistic and positive in their outlook created a real positive synergy with team members. These teams were a lot more victorious in their endeavors and would usually always beat teams that were more pessimistic.

 

When you think about it, it makes perfect sense that an optimist will achieve more than a pessimist. An optimistic person will have strong belief in their abilities and they believe that all of their talents and other positive personality traits are responsible for the positive events in their life.

 

An Optimist probably won’t Give Up

 

One trait that optimists seem to have in abundance is persistence. They accept that things are going to go wrong sometimes. Instead of letting any setbacks overwhelm them, they see them as an opportunity to learn and grow as a person.

 

Pessimists are much more likely to give up on something at the first sign of trouble. They associate lots of effort and stress to resolving problems and will usually run away from them. An optimist will take on any problem and overcome it in order that they can achieve their goals.

 

Optimists are “Luckier” than Pessimists

 

If you know any optimists then you might consider that they are a lot luckier than you in different aspects of life. As an example, an optimist is more likely to receive a lot more job offers than a pessimist is. Luck has nothing to do with this. People will always feel more attracted to those that have a positive outlook on life.

 

Over the years there have been numerous studies showing that optimists have better salaries than pessimists. The studies showed that optimists are also more likely to start on a higher salary than a pessimist. In the world of business, the vast majority of successful people are optimists.

 

Optimists tend to be more passionate about their jobs or their businesses which helps a great deal. On the other hand, a pessimist will spend a lot of time complaining about their job. Pessimists are often overlooked for promotion as well.

 

Optimists are more fun in Relationships

 

This is another thing that makes total sense. People are going to prefer to be in a relationship with someone that has a positive outlook on life than a person who is negative about everything. Relationships where there is at least one optimistic tend to last longer than relationships between pessimists.

 

The Health Benefits Of Optimism

A lot of people don’t realize that there are a number of health benefits associated with optimism. In this article, we will discuss the major health benefits which we hope will inspire you to lead an optimistic life rather than a pessimistic one.

 

Optimists Tend to be Healthier in General

 

Having a positive outlook on life will tend to make you feel a lot better. Your wellbeing will be very important to you because you need this to achieve your goals and enjoy a brighter future. There have been studies in many countries across the world about optimism and its impact on health.

 

All of these studies concluded that optimistic people are 50% less likely to suffer from heart disease or other issues with their cardiovascular system. Should an optimist contract a serious illness, they are much more likely to make a full recovery from it.

 

Similar studies have been conducted with pessimists and negative individuals. The results of these studies showed that pessimists are a lot more likely to suffer from a serious illness and their chances of recovery are a lot slimmer.

 

Optimism leads to greater Longevity

 

If you are an optimist then you are likely to live longer. This was confirmed with a famous retrospective study of famous baseball players in the United States. All of the players were Hall of Famers and active from 1900 to 1950. The most optimistic of all these players lived a lot longer than the pessimistic ones.

 

There have been other studies with people that had serious diseases. Where a patient was more optimistic, the studies showed that they had a much higher chance of making a recovery and living a long life.

 

Optimists tend to have superior Mental Health

 

Most people think that if they are suffering from mental health problems that drugs like antidepressants are the answer. Some studies proved that helping people with mental health issues to reframe negatives into positives was far more effective and long lasting than any drugs. 

 

Anxiety and depression are common mental health problems that optimists rarely suffer with. An optimist has a positive outlook on life and will not let the setbacks that they experience overwhelm them and make them anxious and depressed. 

 

Pessimists tend to let even the smallest of issues overwhelm them. This results in them becoming anxious about so many things in their life. They will often resort to antidepressants and other drugs to fix the symptoms. Drugs are not a long-term fix though. These people are likely to derive more benefit from cognitive therapy and a transition to optimism.

 

Optimists tend to have low levels of Stress

 

It is highly likely that an optimist will have much lower levels if stress than a pessimist. When you are an optimist, you expect good things to happen to you. If things do go wrong, which they will, then you probably will not be overwhelmed by this and increase the amount of stress in your body.

 

If an optimist has a problem to solve then they will not dwell on it causing their stress levels to rise. Unlike pessimists, they tend to be a lot more proactive and see positives in every bad situation. A pessimist will probably sit on a problem that they do not know how to solve which will drive up their stress levels.

 

What is Optimism And Why It's Important

If you are interested in becoming an optimist then this article is for you. Most people have heard of optimism but not everyone is clear on what it really is. Never believe that you are born an optimist or you are not. This is total nonsense. You can become an optimist at any time during your life despite your background.

 

Here you will learn the definition of optimism, the traits of an optimist and the explanatory styles of an optimist and a pessimist.

 

What is Optimism?

 

Optimism is defined as the belief that good things are likely to happen in the future and that there is good in every situation. Optimism is based on the belief that there is good in people, while pessimism is based on the belief that people are generally bad. 

 

Optimism is a state of mind. It is possible for anyone to develop an optimistic mindset at any time. When you are an optimist, you will see any setback in your life as an opportunity for you to learn and grow as a person.

 

Here are some benefits of being an optimist: 

 

·    You will be a positive thinker which can help reduce stress 

·    Optimistic people see the silver lining in every circumstance, leading them to better outcomes. 

·    They are generally more upbeat and engaging, which can improve relationships with family and friends. Optimistic people generally perceive life as more fun.

 

Optimists are confident in their abilities and plan ahead to create a bright future for themselves. They tend to be a lot happier than pessimistic people. 

 

Traits of an Optimist

 

Maybe you think that you are already an optimist? It is important that you understand the common traits of an optimist so that you can develop the same traits. Here are some of the common traits that you need to develop:

 

·      A positive feeling about the future

·      An expectation that good things will happen

·      A belief that you will succeed in life

·      The belief that any challenges are an opportunity for learning and growth

·      The past can be a useful reference and that is all

 

An optimistic does not let any issue, whether it is large or small, dent their enthusiasm for life. When an optimist sets goals, they expect to be faced with some tough challenges. These help the optimist move out of their comfort zone and grow as an individual.

 

Explanatory Styles of an Optimist and Pessimist

 

You can tell that a person is an optimist or a pessimist by two things: 

 

1.    The way they talk about events that have happened in their life

 

2.    The way they write about these events

 

An optimist is confident that all of the positive events they have experienced are down to their abilities and the actions that they took. The way that an optimist will describe a negative event is that it is just temporary and that they learned from it and moved on.

 

Conversely, a pessimist will explain a positive event in their life as fortunate because they have no belief in their ability. For negative events, this is the norm for them and proof that the world is against them.

 

Conclusion

 

Optimism is all about having a positive outlook on life. An optimist will be confident about their future because they will have set goals and worked hard to achieve what they want. Optimists are confident in their own abilities and tend to be a lot happier than pessimists.

 

Daily Rituals For Increased Optimism

The things that you do every day will define you. In time, something that you repeat each day becomes a habit. Habits can be good and bad of course. Your aim here is to develop habits that will empower you to be more optimistic.

 

It is going to take time for you to implement new and empowering habits in your life. The best way to achieve this is to do the same things each day for at least 21 days continuously. Your subconscious mind will pick up on this and realize that you are serious about forming a new habit.

 

Don’t try to implement too many new daily rituals at once. You can start with a small number and add to this as each becomes a habit that you do on autopilot. We recommend that you create a morning ritual where you do certain things every morning. Other rituals can take place whenever it suits you.

 

Your Morning Optimism Ritual

 

There are four things that we recommend for your morning optimism ritual. The first of these is to read your positive affirmations. You can read your affirmations more than once each day but it is essential that you do this at least once in the morning.

 

Optimists always set challenging goals for themselves so first thing in the morning is a very good time for you to read your goals, your emotional drivers and your WHY statement. This will light a fire under you to complete your tasks for the day and move closer to achieving your goals.

 

Spend a few minutes every morning visualizing your best self and success with your goals. Once you learn how to visualize, you will only need a few minutes of this to really inspire you. Visualization is a very powerful technique so make good use of it.

 

The final part of your morning optimism routine needs to be some gentle exercise. This will help to get your blood circulating and your heart pumping. A healthy body is a healthy mind. You can perform any exercise that you like here. It doesn’t need to be a full workout – just enough to get things moving.

 

The four things above will all help you to get the best possible start to each day.

 

Express Gratitude

 

Expressing your gratitude for what you have in your life right now is something that you must do as part of your daily optimism ritual. You can do this at the end of the day before you retire. It doesn’t really matter when you do it to be honest. Write down 3 things you are grateful for and focus on these.

 

Neutralize Negative Thoughts

 

Even the most optimistic of people can experience negative thoughts from time to time. Get into the habit of always neutralizing a negative thought with a positive one. As you progress with this, you will find that you experience fewer negative thoughts on a daily basis.

 

Identify and Complete your Daily Tasks

 

If you want to be an optimist then you need to set yourself challenging goals. When you set your goals, create plans for their achievement. You want to break your plans down into daily tasks. Plan your tasks ahead the night before and endeavor to complete all of your tasks every day.

 

Can You Really Improve Your Emotional Intelligence?

There’s been a long running debate in the world of behavioral and organizational psychologists regarding emotional intelligence. The issue? Whether emotional intelligence exists or not. 

 

A consensus of experts think that EI is a real thing. The big argument centers on what it is and where it comes from. Some people are convinced that emotional intelligence is simply just an extension of your personality. That’s the problem if you’re trying to improve emotional intelligence. 

 

If it’s just part of your personality, then it’s not much different from saying that you are just born with that emotional intelligence or you’re not. This is very depressing. Study after study has shown that emotional intelligence plays a big role in overall personal success. It works hand and hand with IQ. 

 

It doesn’t hurt to be born with high IQ. Don’t get me wrong, this will definitely open a lot of doors for you, but you cannot rely on it alone. IQ can only go so far. You may be a high IQ individual but if you’re lazy, there would be less opportunities for you. You may be able to grasp otherwise complicated concepts very quickly but if you’re unable to communicate with your emotions effectively, this inability is going to stymie your success.

 

IQ does not exist in a vacuum. It really doesn’t. It has to coordinate with other very important human skill set. Emotional intelligence is one of them. The problem with positioning emotional intelligence as essentially arising out of personality is that it becomes random. You’re left with the conclusion that either you’re born with emotional intelligence or you’re not. 

 

This flies in the face of evidence. Why? A lot of people who start out emotionally awkward or even socially incompetent become very smooth polished and effective when they find themselves in social settings. In other words, they chose to increase their emotional intelligence they chose to hone their skills. They did not wait for their built own personality-based emotional intelligence to kick in. They don’t wait around and took matters into their own hands.

 

They know that they have issues dealing with other people so they got the right information and they worked on this trait over and over again over an extended period of time until they got it right. In other words, building up emotional intelligence, if you look at it as an ability instead of some sort of built in, in born extension of your personality, is very much like working out in the gym. Do you remember the first time you hit the gym? It was probably hard on your body because you haven’t worked out before. When you hit the bench-press and you put 50, 60, 100 pounds on your system, it felt like murder. But after two weeks of continuously hitting the weights, it got easier and easier and eventually you reach the point where you can scale up the weights. Now you’re probably lifting a lot more pounds than when you started. The same applies to emotional intelligence. 

 

At first, it’s going to be downright scary. In fact, in certain cases it may seem downright pointless. But the more you keep at it and the better results that you get, the more you stick to it and the better you get at it. You create an upward spiral.

 

To do yourself a big favor, understand that emotional intelligence is something that you can improve. It’s not something that is set in stone, it is not something that some people are born with and most are not. Get those ideas out of your head. 

 

It is something that you can improve as long as you choose to. Make emotional intelligence maximize your chances of success in all areas of life.

 

Here’s Why Emotional Intelligence is as Crucial as IQ for Personal Success

For the longest time, there is the idea that people who make a big deal of emotional intelligence are simply low or mediocre IQ people. 

 

In the minds of a lot of people, those who make a big deal of their emotional skills and sociability are essentially compensating for the fact that they have low or mediocre IQ. If only things were that simple. 

 

The truth is, when you look at any organization, chances are high that the head honcho or the prime movers and shakers of that establishment are not at the top of the IQ chart for that organization. In fact, in many cases, the most progressive and successful organizations have CEOs that have IQs way below the smartest people in their organizations. The smart individuals, it turns out, are specialists. Either they work in the IT department, the planning department and other areas, but when it comes to the actual operation of raw executive control of the organization, these individuals tend to have lower IQs. 

 

What’s going on? You have to look at emotional intelligence. Success doesn’t just involve figuring out what to do. It doesn’t just turn on whether you know how to do things or not. Instead, a large part of success turns on whether you can really manage people who are often opposed to each other towards a common goal. 

 

You must be able to do this day after day, week after week, month after month. You must be able to scale this in the future and you must be able to communicate this clearly not only to your team members, but also to people outside your team.

Interestingly enough, this skill set cannot be explained by IQ. This is where emotional intelligence comes in. Not only do you have self-aware to the point that you know what you’re feelings are, but you are able to communicate you feelings to others in such a way that you’ve become more persuasive and you are able to remind them about common goals. This is how you can tell whether a leader can motivate and inspire people around them to produce better and better results.

 

People with low emotional intelligence who are thrust into leadership positions often use fear, intimidation, or grotesque and cheap rewards to get what they need. Eventually, that gets old. That organization would stagnate if it doesn’t fall apart. 

 

Emotional intelligence is crucial to any organization that is aiming for the fences. make no mistake, if you’re trying to hit that home run, you need to be led by somebody who not only knows how say the right things to the right people in the right time to produce the right results, but also who is able to do this in many different contexts. That person must also able to plan out the consequences of such emotional signals. 

 

Understand the importance of emotional intelligence because if you want to be more successful in any area of your life, you need to confront this issuer and you need to master emotional intelligence. Click here to get your own personal blueprint of emotional intelligence success. 

 

It’s not as hard as you think. It is not complicated, it is not Greek, and it is not written in computer codes. You just have to know what you’re doing and what you’re dealing with. 

 

Unfortunately, so many people think in habitual terms. They think that once they perceive certain things that they can respond emotionally a certain way. This is why they continue to struggle and don’t get the results that they otherwise have coming to them. 

 

If you want to maximize your emotional intelligence, you need the right guidance. This book will set you on the right path. Forget about blog posts that you’ve read and the webinars on YouTube that you’ve seen, start with a blank slate. Start with what you know. Start with who you are.