Everyone gets down in the dumps occasionally. We have our ups and downs, our successes and failures. We just naturally feel positive some times and negative at other times. There are times, however, that we dont bounce back quickly from our negative attitude. It may be a result of failing after putting everything we have into a project. We just want to throw in the towel and give up.

When you remain negative for a long period, it is a signal that something is wrong. It can lead to depression, lack luster job performance, and eventually to poor health. We need to try extra hard to snap out of it.

You can think yourself out of such a situation by filling your mind with past successes. Remind yourself that everyone makes mistakes and fails. It is a part of life. You can also act your way out of it. Act the way you want to be and you will become what you want to be. Acting like everything is great, imagining the success you want, the fat paycheck, the elated countenance, and you will begin feeling it. When you act and feel a certain way, your brain doesnt know the difference between what you are telling it and reality. Keep thinking and acting this way long enough and it will become reality.

It is, of course, not easy to behave differently from the way it is, but with practice you can gradually leave the thoughts of doom and gloom and look on the bright side. We have the power to control our thoughts. When we get in the wrong frame of mind we can tell our self to stop it and turn our thoughts to more pleasant things. Wrong thinking can get one in trouble in a hurry. We must learn to put the brakes on and head in the other direction.

There is nothing wrong with having negative feelings, but they must be balanced with positive ones. Negative thoughts about our plans help to find their flaws. Positive thoughts supply the confidence to go forward toward success. When thoughts become unbalanced in either direction, it is time to be concerned. Extreme positive attitudes may lead to overlooking problems and lead to failure. Extreme negative thoughts can lead to lack of confidence, poor performance or giving up.

In their book, You cant afford the luxury of a negative thought John Rogers and Peter McWilliams describe how dangerous it is for the terminally ill to have negative thoughts. Even if not terminal, always being negative drags you down and make it difficult to do anything well. This can seriously affect your mental and physical health. We had better learn this lesson before we are terminal.

Positive attitudes are associated with confidence, excellent job performance, High self-esteem and success while negative attitudes often lead to doubts, low self-esteem, poor workmanship, few promotions, and sometimes failure and poor mental health.

The point of this article is that we have a choice of which attitude we have. We dont have to doubt our ability and put our self down, we can choose to be thankful for what we have and look forward to more success. We can shrug off failures, recognizing that life comes with cycles of ups and downs. We were made in the image of God and not designed to feel sorry for ourselves, but to learn from our mistakes and make them the stepping stones to success.

This article was written for encouragement of everyone struggling with problems of everyday living. You have permission to publish it if the resource box is left intact. It would be appreciated if you notify me when you do at lynn_b2@yahoo.com.