Components of a Positive Attitude

Your attitude, your general outlook on life, largely determines your experience of reality. It affects how you perceive others, and how they see you. Positive people are motivated to pursue worthy ambitions and keep their eyes focused on what matters most in any moment.

An article published in the January 2007 Gallup Management Journal notes that the components of a positive attitude, collectively called positive psychological capital, can be learned.

Components of a Positive Attitude:

Hope

It is the ability to stay focused on your goals and change paths when needed to succeed.

Hope is perseverance. People with a positive attitude are able to look through the difficulties they face today and believe they can find a way through or around those difficulties.

To learn hope, focus on goals that are challenging, yet attainable and brainstorm multiple ways to achieve those goals.

Recognize that you can influence your forward movement and sustain your activities until you reach your goals.

Optimism

People with a positive attitude exhibit optimism, the belief in the best possible outcome of a decision or action and that negative circumstances are temporary.

Optimism must be grounded in reality; for example, a person cannot jump from a tree and optimistically expect to overcome the laws of gravity.

Optimists are proactive. They see the "up-side" to every situation and create the results they desire through sheer tenacity.

Optimism is a self-fulfilling attitude--you see what you look for and what you focus on begins to increase.

Resiliency

Positive people exhibit resiliency, the ability to “bounce back” from difficult circumstances.

Resiliency, or hardiness, has three attitudinal components: commitment, control and challenge.

Commitment is the willingness to stay engaged rather than become isolated during hard times, choosing to be involved in life’s next step.

Control is the willingness to try and influence the outcome of challenging circumstances, such as talking to your boss about the many different roles you can fill when the possibility of lay-offs occur.

Challenge is the ability to view each situation as an opportunity to learn.

Enthusiasm

Isaac D'Israeli, famed British scholar, once wrote "Enthusiasm is that secret and harmonious spirit which hovers over the production of genius."

Enthusiasm is a sense of intense, purposeful passion held toward any object or topic.

Enthusiasm inspires you to cultivate your abilities, to move forward despite uncertainty, to continually transcend obstacles which are placed in the way of progress.

An enthusiastic person is driven. He is not captive to inhibition, because his will to succeed is always more powerful than his fear.

Kindness

Kindness is a desire to help others without any evident promise of reward.

However, the act of doing something for someone else benefits both giver and receiver on many levels.

The act of giving removes your attention from worry and places it on how you can positively affect the world around you.

Kindness repairs injury and removes contradictory emotions like hate, contempt and resentment. Kindness, in essence, brings people together.

Understanding Positive Attitude

(Attitude – Part 1)

An attitude, as defined by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary website, "is a mental position with regard to a fact or state; a feeling or emotion toward a fact or state."

The dictionary goes on to state that the word "positive" can be used as "having a good effect; favorable; marked by optimism."

When you demonstrate a positive attitude, therefore, you are optimistic and expect favorable outcomes. A positive attitude can impact every aspect of your life.

Benefits of a Positive Attitude:

* People who maintain a positive approach to life situations and challenges will be able to move forward more constructively than those who become stuck in a negative attitude.

* Mental and physical health can be improved by learning how to hold a positive state of mind.

* Ability to handle stress: When people have a positive attitude they do not perceive stress as intensely dangerous or as difficult as they would if they had a more negative attitude. In short, having a positive attitude provides improved coping skills when you are faced with challenges or adversity.

* Optimistic people can envision success and therefore are able to achieve goals.

People are naturally drawn to others with happy, cheerful dispositions so friendships and relationships are easier to develop.

* There are correlations between a positive attitude and the body's immune system. Optimism can play a part in helping the body fight off illness and disease.

Creating a Positive Attitude

One way is to catch yourself when you are having a negative thought and form a new positive script in response.

One can convert bad stress into good stress through your thoughts. Instead of feeling "stressed out," turn the situation into an exciting opportunity for growth and achievement. Learning the power of a positive attitude can make your life more manageable and fulfilling.