Keeping a positive attitude is one of the most important things you can do if you want to lead a happy life and 
achieve your desired level of professional success. When you have a positive attitude, dealing with personal and professional obstacles will be a lot easier, and you will be able to keep moving forward in the face of adversity.
If you want to keep a positive attitude so you can more fully enjoy your life, there are a number of strategies you may want to implement. This article offers a guide for how to have a good attitude so that you can find more success in your career and satisfaction in your personal life.
Why keeping a positive attitude is important
Before you learn how to keep a positive attitude, taking a look at some of the benefits of positivity is a good idea. Being positive can help you in a wide variety of ways, both in your personal relationships and in your pursuit of professional success. The benefits of keeping a positive attitude include:
- Identifying and seizing opportunities instead of letting them pass you by. Imagine a new position opens up in your company. A person with a negative attitude would see everything wrong with the position, such as an unimpressive salary or too heavy a workload. On the other hand, if you have a positive attitude, you might see an opportunity in the position. Maybe the job would provide you the ability to move up in the company or you would learn new skills that could aid your career.
- Viewing failures as motivation. When you don’t have a positive attitude, it can be easy to see personal or professional failures as a reason not to try in the future. If you have a positive outlook, however, you can view failures as opportunities for improvement and use them as motivation to keep striving for your goals. Maybe failing at one thing will open up an opportunity for something better or will teach you something new about yourself.
- Overcoming obstacles in your path. People who encounter hardship and have a negative attitude can find it difficult to move forward, which may cause them to miss out on something great in the future. If you have a positive mindset, it will be easier for you to see a way past your obstacles, giving you the motivation to carry on in the face of adversity.
How to keep a positive attitude
Now that you understand why it’s important to maintain an optimistic view no matter the circumstances, let’s consider how to do it. The following are methods for how to keep a positive attitude:
- Be aware of the good things in your life
- Push yourself to do more each day
- Describe yourself and your life with positive words
- Surround yourself with positive people
- Start meditating every day
- Try not to expect results
- Try to make other people feel happy
- Forgive others for their limitations
- Focus on what you get to do instead of what you have to do
- Practice dealing with rejection
Be aware of the good things in your life
Focusing on the negative in your life instead of the positive is one of the biggest obstacles you may have in keeping a positive attitude. Fortunately, you can easily start changing your mindset by writing a gratitude journal.
A gratitude journal is a notebook in which you keep track of all the good things in your life. At the end of every day, write down five things you’re thankful for that day so you can focus on the good in your life instead of the bad.
Most people have a lot more to be thankful for than they realize. For example, if you’ve had a bad day at work, you can be grateful that you get to come home and spend time with your family. Focusing on the things you’re grateful for instead of the things you’d like to change can make it easier for you to stay positive, even when you’ve had a bad day.
Push yourself to do more each day
One of the main aspects of a positive attitude is believing in yourself and your capabilities. If you want to keep a positive attitude, you should try to test your limits every single day. Do more work today than you did yesterday, and do more work tomorrow than you did today. If you force yourself past your limits each day, it will demonstrate that you are a capable, skilled person, which will make it easier for you to stay positive. Then when you’re faced with a big task, your past experience of testing yourself will give you the confidence that you’re up to the challenge.
Describe yourself and your life with positive words
Changing the language you use when you talk about yourself is one of the simplest solutions for keeping a positive attitude. Your language has a lot of power on your mindset, and if you frequently use negative language, it can cause you to view your life in a negative light.
For example, if you frequently describe your life as boring, you will probably be bored at work. On the other hand, if you describe your job as fun, you’ll probably find yourself looking forward to starting work each day instead of dreading leaving your home.
Use positive language whenever you can. Eventually, the language you use will become part of your mindset, and you’ll find it much easier to stay positive.
Surround yourself with positive people
The company you keep also has a much bigger impact on your attitude than you may realize. You tend to imitate the people you spend the most time with, even if you’re doing it unconsciously. If you spend most of your time around people with a negative attitude who complain about everything, you’re more likely to start acting the same way.
If you want to maintain a positive attitude both at work and at home, you should surround yourself with positive people. Spend as much time as you can with coworkers who enjoy working and take obstacles in stride, and try to make friends who are encouraging and rarely complain. When your professional and social network is filled with positive people, your attitude and behaviors will be a lot more positive than they would be otherwise.
Start meditating every day
When things get hectic, keeping your positive attitude can be tough. Fortunately, you can learn how to stay positive in tough situations by incorporating meditation into your daily routine.
Your breathing can have a big impact on your emotions. If you’re breathing rapidly, it can make you feel anxious or even angry, depending on the circumstance. On the other hand, when your breaths are slow and deep, you’ll be able to remain calm and focus on the positive when things seem at their worst.
Meditation is all about controlling your breath so you can control your emotions. If you meditate every day, you’ll eventually be able to use deep-breathing techniques to keep yourself calm in stressful situations so you can remain positive. Eventually, deep breathing will become second nature to you, and you’ll find that your outlook is more positive than ever.
Try not to expect results
Unmet expectations can be a big reason for a negative attitude. For instance, imagine you have improved your output at work and expect that your increased performance will result in a raise. If you don’t receive that raise, it can be easy to give in to negativity, which will impact your performance.
If you want to stay positive, you should avoid expecting results when you take action. You should instead work toward achievements without expecting they will occur.
Setting goals and acting toward them without expecting results will help you to stay positive even if you never reach those goals. If you do achieve a goal but didn’t assume the result was inevitable, your sense of accomplishment will be even greater.
Try to make other people feel happy
Setting daily goals can be a good way to find success and to develop a great attitude, particularly if one of your goals is to make someone else smile on a regular basis. It can be easy to forget just how much of an impact our actions and attitudes have on other people. If our actions are negative, it will negatively impact those around us.
If you want to stay positive, try to do something good for someone else every day. Offer a sympathetic ear to a friend in crisis or call a family member you haven’t talked to in a while. At work, lend a hand on a project without being asked or buy your co-workers a surprise lunch. Making someone else smile every day will show you just how important your attitude and actions are to other people, which will remind you to stay positive.
Understand everyone has limitations
Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. If you focus on people’s limitations, it can make it hard for you to stay positive while interacting with others.
For instance, if you’re working with someone on a project and they’re not meeting expectations, it can easily impact your attitude in a negative way. Instead of dwelling on your coworker’s shortcomings, try to find the good things they’re doing and focus on those instead.
Focus on what you get to do instead of what you have to do
Feeling obligated can have a tremendous effect on your personal attitude. If you feel like you have to do something, it can cause negative feelings because you don’t feel like you have any choice in the matter. Therefore, changing the way you think about your obligations is one of the best ways how to have a positive attitude.
Instead of saying you have to fulfill an obligation, say you get to. You get to go to work. You get to run your errands. You get to wake up early and workout. By talking about your obligations as something that you get to do instead of something you have to do, you’ll be able to approach these tasks with a positive mindset.
Practice dealing with rejection
Rejection can be very hard to deal with. If you’re the type of person who doesn’t handle rejection well, it’s possible you’ve been avoiding opportunities out of a fear of being told no. Handling rejection correctly is a skill that you can develop, and once you do, you’ll have an easier time staying positive even when you’ve been rebuffed in one of your goals.
The best way to learn how to deal with rejection is to simply try for things where failure is more likely than success. Ask for that promotion you’ve been waiting for even if you think your boss will say no, or apply for your dream job even if you don’t quite yet have the right qualifications.
Once you’ve dealt with several rejections, being told no will be a lot less scary than it used to be. Then when you’re rejected, you’ll be able to keep a positive mindset and see the good in a bad situation. People who are able to deal with rejection will find it much easier to keep working toward their goals and stay positive while doing so.
If you want to have a happier and more fulfilling life, keeping a positive attitude is one of the most important things you can do. With a positive mindset, dealing with the obstacles life throws your way will be a lot easier, and you’ll find that your personal relationships are stronger and that you’re better able to find success in your professional life. Implement these tips, and you’ll be able to change your mindset for the better.
