Simple ideas to help you think more positively

1. Organise your day – You’ll feel more motivated if you have a plan each day. Plan today what you’ll do tomorrow, don’t wait until tomorrow arrives.

2. Set personal goals – Work out what you want to achieve over the next year, then consider next month, next week and then each day. Think about longer term goals first and then work out what needs to be done in the shorter term to achieve them.

3. Keep a journal – Record what you do. Why? So that you continually remind yourself of the good things that are happening and your achievements. Negative people often forget the good and dwell too much on the bad.

4. Mix with positive people – Positivity is infectious. So if you want to catch it, help yourself by spending more time with positive people. Negativity is infectious too, so try to avoid pessimists.

5. Stay healthy – Exercise releases positive chemicals into the bloodstream. Try to do something regularly that you enjoy, even if it’s just a walk round the block. It’s amazing how different you’ll feel afterwards.

6. Get your worries in proportion – Reflect on what’s worrying you. Is it really that bad? Put it in perspective and think about how bad it really could be. Remind yourself to be thankful for what you have.

7. Manage your expectations – Challenge yourself but don’t push yourself too hard. Nobody’s perfect. So set yourself challenges but try to keep personal deadlines realistic and manageable.

8. Look forward – Force yourself to look to the future. Learn from the past but don’t dwell on your mistakes. Negative people tend to look backwards, not forwards.

9. Do something for someone else – It’s amazing how helping someone else with something, even just a small thing, can make you feel more positive and more worthwhile. Do this at work and at home. Try it and you’ll see.

10. Balance recreation and work – Force yourself to do something you enjoy outside work. This isn’t selfish, it’s sensible. It’ll bring balance to your life and make you feel a whole lot more motivated and happy.

11. Accept change – Come to terms with the fact that change is a positive thing. Don’t be frightened of it. If you don’t open your mind to the need to do things differently, you can’t improve.