Say you’re on a hike with a friend. Everything's going great- the air is fresh, the view is pretty, and you’re having fun.
But then something happens that changes all of that. Your friend suddenly collapses right next to you, and starts panting uncontrollably. You panic. You're not sure how to help. So, you reach for their backpack to check for supplies, and you discover what had really happened:
For some reason, your friend had been carrying a 30 kg dumbbell with them this whole time!? Silly, right?
Except what if I told you you’re probably doing the exact same thing in life right now? Just like your friend’s imaginary dumbbells, harboring a negative mental attitude can weigh you down, exhaust you, and make each step of life harder than it has to be.
That’s why it’s so important to ditch those weights, and instead cultivate a positive attitude that will lift you up and help you achieve more than you ever imagined.
And lucky you! This is exactly what I’m here to help you with today.
In this post, I’ll share everything you need to know about positive mental attitudes- what they are, why they’re important to achieve success, and how you can develop them. Let’s get started!
What Is A Positive Mental Attitude?
Alright, first up let’s define positive mental attitudes (PMA), and clear up some common misconceptions along the way.
One definition comes from Dr. Zarghuna Naseem, who defines PMA as “A frequent experience of positive emotions, optimism, hope, and happiness.”
Pretty straightforward, right? Let’s look at another one. This one’s by Dr Pam McGarth, and she adds a bit more flavor by describing positive thinking as “A generic term referring to an overall attitude that is reflected in thinking, behavior, feeling, and speaking. Positive thinking is a mental attitude that admits into the mind; thoughts, words, and images that are conductive to growth, expansion, and success.”
The highlight here is that she refers to how broad this concept really is by calling it “generic,” AKA not easy to pin down!
And Why is that? Here’s why: what often walks and talks like a positive mental attitude is often a negative attitude in disguise.
Here’s what I mean: let’s say you get rejected by your dream university even though you worked really hard on your application. If your immediate reaction to this is “I guess I should look at the bright side…,” you’re not being positive, you’re being toxic to yourself. True positivity is allowing yourself space to feel your emotions.
Or how about the opposite example? Let’s say you hadn’t put any real effort into your application, but hoped for the best anyway. Again, even though it looks like it, it's not positivity; it's the wolf of wishful thinking tricking you by wearing grandma positivity’s clothes.
So defining positive mental attitudes can be complicated. But don’t worry- we can tackle this together.
I’ve put together a list of top traits found in genuinely positive people to help you spot them from a mile away!
10 Characteristics Of A Positive Mental Attitude
Here are the 10 characteristics or traits that you can use to identify a positive attitude in others and in yourself:
- Acceptance: Positive thinkers accept that things don’t always go the way they want them to. Whatever cards they are played, they will work with them constructively.
- Gratitude: Positive thinkers always recognize and appreciate the good around them- both big and small.
- Optimism: People with positive mental attitudes always hope for the best and they choose to focus on the positive aspects of their situations.
- Resilience: People with positive mental attitudes always make sure they bounce back from setbacks. Their positive outlook on life gives them hope in difficult times.
- Persistence: Positive thinkers continue working toward their goals even when their plans are met with obstacles or delays. Their opportunity-oriented mindset allows them to quickly think of ways to leverage new situations so they keep making progress toward their goals.
- Mindfulness: People with a positive attitude stop themselves from worrying about things they can’t control. They choose to focus on the present through mindfulness.
- Confidence: People with a positive outlook on life keep themselves in high esteem. They appreciate their worth and they are confident in their ability to overcome any challenges they might face.
- Kindness: People with a positive attitude show compassion and kindness toward themselves and others.
- Adaptability: People with a positive attitude are open to change. They’re able to navigate unfamiliar situations because they believe things will eventually turn out in their favor.
- Motivation: People with a positive attitude stay motivated during both trying and friendly times. They don’t let negative thoughts talk them out of doing what needs to be done.
3 Examples Of Positive Mental Attitudes In Action
So far, we’ve dealt with the concept of positive mindsets in theory. Now, let’s get some practicality in the room, and see what positive mental attitudes look like in action:
Scenario 1: You Get Rejected From Your Dream University
Let’s start with an example you’re already familiar with; getting rejected by your dream university.
What would a someone with a positive mindset do in this in this situation?
You can probably guess what a negative person might do- thinking things like:
“This is so unfair. Why do things never work out for me!?” or “You know what? I’m done trying so hard. I clearly don’t have what it takes.”
Someone with a positive mental attitude? Well they would approach this situation in a completely different way. Here's one example:
- They'll first take the time they need to feel the initial shock, process their emotions, and acknowledge what has happened.
- Then, they would probably start bringing themselves to accept the situation for what it is.
- Once they feel ready, they'll start asking themselves what their best course of action might be, and whether there are any hidden opportunities in this situation.
- While they work on this, they'll be mindful of the fact that they're not robots, and that emotional recovery isn’t linear. So when the blues hit again, they'll allow themselves the space to feel them, and start all over.
Scenario 2: Your Manager Gave You A Big Project On A Tight Deadline
Now let’s say you’re an employee somewhere and your manager pulls the classic:
“Hello, please do [a HUGE project] within [an unreasonably short deadline]? Thanks.”
What do you do here?
Well, one way to go is to sit around and keep complaining about the unfairness of the expectation.
OR you could approach the situation with the right mindset (a growth mindset) and tell yourself:
“You know what, this is going to be tough to achieve, but if I can push myself and get this done, It’ll be a great way to set myself apart from others. Also, if I can do the job well despite these odds, my boss will realize I can work well on my feet and probably send more important projects my way.”
(This is of course always making sure you don't jeopardize your own well-being though.)
Scenario 3: You’re struggling to get your startup off the ground
Now let’s say you’re swamped with work trying to get your startup up and running.
One way to go is to let the panic and self-doubt take over and render you unable to get anything done.
What’s the other way?
Something along the lines of: “This is going to be challenging for sure. But that’s how I know it’s going to be a great learning experience. I mean, what’s the worst that can happen? It won't work out, and I'll emerge more experienced than ever before. Not to mention, it could work, and wouldn't that be so worth it?"
Why Is It Important To Cultivate A Positive Mental Attitude for Success?
Okay. Now that we have a solid grasp of what a positive mindset is, let’s ask ourselves the big question:
Why go through the trouble?
I mean it’s not like simply thinking positively guarantees things will go your way, right? Well, yeah- it doesn't.
But what a positive attitude does always guarantee is that you’ll always create better outcomes for yourself in adverse situations than you would otherwise. And why is that?
That's because adopting a positive mental attitude helps you:
- Perform better in all situations
- Cope better with difficult situations
And no, you're not supposed to just take my word for it- I'm going to show you my work. Here are six science-backed benefits of cultivating a positive mental attitude.
1. A Positive Mental Attitude Improves Academic Performance
If you’re a student, this will be great news for you: a positive mental attitude can help bring your grades up.
A really interesting experiment that proves this was conducted in the 1960s by psychologist Robert Rosenthal and school principal Lenore Jacobson.
What did they do? Well, they went through the rooster of an elementary school in California, and randomly picked a few names off of it.
This group of randomly selected names was labeled “bloomers.” Now the researchers did something sneaky: they approached the teachers of this elementary school and pretended like they had conducted some sort of complicated analysis, and that according to its results, these "bloomers" were most likely to be successful in the future.
All that was left to do now was sit back and watch the magic happen.
The researchers tracked the academic performance of the whole batch of students for the whole academic year and found that the students who had been labeled "bloomers" showed a significantly greater improvement in academic performance compared to their peers.
Something really interesting happened here.
The teachers’ positive expectations from "bloomers" actually ended up improving their academic performance. Simply believing a certain group of students were special, changed these teachers' attitudes toward them- making them extra careful to ensure these children got all the help they needed to reach their true potential. And with that extra help, these bloomers actually ended up doing better than everyone else.
But what about a student’s own positive thoughts? Do they help bring up academic performance as well?
According to the study published by Carol Dweck in 2007, yes they do!
In this study, researchers measured seventh-grade students’ beliefs about intelligence over two years i.e., whether they believed intelligence was fixed or could be grown like a muscle.
Simultaneously, the researchers kept track of those students’ academic performance in math.
What do they find? Students who had a growth mindset about intelligence saw their math grades improve over the studied period, and, surprise surprise, students with a fixed mindset about intelligence experienced a downward trajectory.
2. A Positive Mental Attitude Improves Your Performance In Sports
But it’s not just academics where a positive attitude can help you shine. As it turns out, a little bit of positivity can help you out in sports as well!
And Dr. Blaslotto’s basketball experiment is here to prove it.
So what happened? Well, Dr. Blaslotto wanted to find the effect of positive thinking and visualization on people’s performance in sports.
He divided the volunteering participants in his study into three groups. For the next 30 days, he made group 1 practice throwing a basketball through a hoop, and group 2 only visualized making successful free throws (without physical practice). Group 3 was instructed to do neither.
Once the 30 days were over, group 1 members had improved their accuracy by 24%, group 2 by 23% and group 3 showed no improvement.
The mere act of regularly visualizing themselves successfully scoring the hoop was enough to improve group 2’s performance by almost as much as group 1- the group that actually practiced scoring the hoop every single day.
3. A Positive Mental Attitude Improves Your Work Performance
A positive attitude can help you stand out at work too!
A famous meta-analysis conducted by Sonja Lyubomirsky, a positive psychology professor at the University of California, shows that employees with higher levels of positive affect have superior job performance and productivity compared to other employees.
Additionally, it showed that employees who experienced positive emotions were a lot more likely to get favorable evaluations from their supervisors and achieve more in their careers.
And I mean it makes sense, doesn't it? A mind oriented toward growth and opportunity will only see growth and opportunity, and a mind oriented toward negativity will only see negativity. Or, as Henry Ford put it "Whether you think you can, or you think you can't- you're right."
