You’re probably bombarded by messages like “Don’t do this” or “Don’t do that” on a daily basis by media or by some other source.  While that sort of thinking might work to help you keep rules and regulations in mind, it’s not a very healthy outlook to keep for the other factors of your life.

The Power of Positive Thinking

As kindergarten as it might sound, thinking good and happy thoughts actually affects your outward disposition and behavior.  Job applicants are the most popular anecdotal example because those who think positively and believe that they will get the job are a lot more relaxed and confident.  Your behavior is a psychological aspect of yourself, so changing the way you look at things will definitely affect the way you walk, talk, and act.

And it’s not all about just thinking good things that makes a difference.  When you think positively and, say, imagine yourself achieving your goal, you keep yourself focused on the finished line.  Thus, your actions are more probable to bring you one step closer to that finish line.  When you think positively despite setbacks or difficulties, you keep yourself from getting distracted with negative comments, and you get back on the road a lot more quickly.

Visualize and Affirm

You can break down positive thinking into two components - one that stretches from the time you prepare yourself to the time you actually work for a goal and another for the period of time after you have made your effort.

Before you set out to meet the challenge, set a clear goal and visualize yourself achieving that goal.  In your head, see yourself making that grade or winning that competition.  See yourself shaking the boss’ hand as he tells you that you just got yourself the promotion.  Imagine yourself crossing that finish line victorious.  You might call it mere fantasy, but it’s actually very effective preparation.  It helps you tune out the small, irrelevant, and insignificant disturbances to allow you to focus more on where you want to go and how you can get there.

If you managed to reach your goal, celebrate.  Congratulate yourself.  It sounds like gloating, but it’s actually affirmation because you’re telling yourself that you did a great job and was, thus, able to achieve the goal.  Affirm the good traits you brought out and positive actions that you did.  Tell yourself that you were confident.  Tell yourself that you were focused.  Doing so makes it easier to tap into those same things the next time around.

If you don’t reach your goal, on the other hand, affirm and use positive language nonetheless.  Don’t tell yourself that you didn’t place first in the race.  Tell yourself that you won second, and that you’d like yourself to go faster and stronger next time.  You give yourself congratulations for whatever you were able to achieve while at the same time provide a strong motivation for practice and improvement.

When producing something, being it writing an article, drawing a painting or whatever you do, you have to learn how to strike a balance between the quality of what you are producing and the amount of time you allow yourself to work on the project. Assuming that you don’t waste time, the more time you allocate to a project, the higher the quality.

The problem with perfectionists is that they only focus on one dimension: quality; without giving any importance to time. A perfectionist produces excellent stuff but most of the time this is done at great cost, since a lot of time is used to finish the work.

In the real world, quality is sometimes sacrificed in order to meet deadlines. Harsh competition forces such attitude since everyone wants to be the first to break the news: “First to produce this… New record in that…”. Perfectionists tend to be conservative and do not accept such reality. When perfectionists are part of a team, they tend to be show stoppers for every single defect that in a way or another diminishes quality. Don’t take me wrong… you need perfectionists in a team; since that way you will make sure that your product will have a certain degree of quality. But you have to be aware as to how many perfectionist you put in a team. Either too few or too many has undesirable effects.

In order to meet their own high standards, perfectionists put a lot of effort. They are ready to work long and extra hours, even if not getting paid, redo work of others which in their opinion is not up to standard and stress themselves by worrying too much. It is interesting the results obtained from a study published in the New York Times, where a group of perfectionists were made to slack on purpose. They were allowed to leave a messy desk, arrive at work late and leave early. When these perfectionists were asked for comments after such an experiment, they reported that they felt more relaxed and happier with this new life. They showed their surprise that things went well even though they ‘slacked’.

Even though perfectionists suffer from stress due to their ‘defect’, they still find it hard to get themselves not worrying too much about quality. It is the same like procrastinators cannot help themselves from delaying stuff to a later time. From my experience, I believe that perfectionist suffer since they are abused by others. Slacking team members tend to spot out perfectionists to do their job knowing that with the right words they will manage to use perfectionism to their advantage

Let’s put this straight… different people concentrate in different ways. I have tried various ways to better concentrate and after a lot of trial and error I found this method works best for me. As I said it does not mean that it will work for you, but I think it is worth sharing the method anyways. However I am very positive that since it worked for me, with some effort, it will work for you too.

First of all concentration requires an effort. You have to have a mindset to concentrate. When I am busy and I need to concentrate on some work I do the following:

I close the door. I want complete silence. I don’t want to hear what others are doing in the house. The faintest noise might make me lose my concentration or make me nervous or curious about what is going on. By closing myself in a room, I eliminate such situations.

I switch OFF music. As I said complete silence works best for me. Some people prefer soft music, classical music or ambient music. I found out that having complete silence helps me immerse myself in the work I have to do.

Switch off all communication devices and methods. I switch off my instant messaging and if I don’t need internet I switch off my laptop. That way I also eliminate the sound whirring laptop fans :P. I switch off my cell phone and unplug my phone. Well, I only unplug the phone when I seriously want to concentrate.

Clear the desk. I clear the desk from all kinds of paper and other stationary. Sometimes I find myself playing with a rubber or a pen. To eliminate such situations I remove everything and only leave the stuff I absolutely need to carry out my work.

Proper lighting. I found that proper lighting is a fundamental ambient property that helps you to concentrate. I tend to like warm tropical light (slightly yellowish) since it feels warmer and less artificial than white light.

Once I enter my concentration zone I try to finish off all the tasks that I planned before I take a break. This is because to get into the concentration zone again it takes time and it does not always work. Once I finish of the task I take a long break in order to recover after an intensive session of concentration. Before I take a break though, I look at the work I managed to finish with admiration and look forward for another session of concentration
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“Life is like a mirror, we get the best results when we smile at it.” Unknown.

How much do we hear the phrase “Think positive”? The problem is that when bad things happen, we tend to forget these rules of thumb resulting in change of temper. When we are facing a serious problem or challenge we tend to give more importance to the dark side and the bad things that can happen. Being such a person will not help you in taking good decisions, since you are always afraid of the negative impact without seeing the whole picture.

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The following tips will help you avoid, manage, and overcome stress to take control of your life and live better.

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Does this blog post title sound strange to you? First imitate, then innovate! Shouldn’t we always try to come up with new ideas, create new things, and build new stuff? The answer to that is yes and no.

Let me explain.

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In my last blog post I outlined what you need to do to have a healthy body. In this post I will outline what you need to do to have a healthy mind. First of all, what is a healthy mind?

That is a complex question, and since I am not a neuroscientist, psychologist, psychiatrist or some other ist, I can only say what benefits a healthy mind gives to an individual.

A healthy mind allows a person to:

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