In today's rushed, high pressure society, sometimes it's hard to think positively. Many people feel stuck in a rut and end up thinking very negatively. This is not only bad for your health, but can also cause you to miss out on your full potential.
     By thinking negatively like "I'll never accomplish this or that," pretty soon it becomes a self fulfilled prophecy. You believe you can't accomplish great things, so you never try to and as a result you won't accomplish anything.
     However, if you start thinking positively like "I can accomplish this," then you're more likely to go for it and become much more successful than you would've if you had never tried.
     "Man often becomes what he believes himself to be. If I keep on saying to myself that I cannot do a certain thing, it is possible that I may end by really becoming incapable of doing it. On the contrary, if I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning."
~Mahatma Gandhi
     You teach your mind to expect success, and by expecting success you're likely to become successful. Thinking positive is also good for your health. By replacing negative thoughts with positive ones, you're more likely to have:

• Increased life span
• Lower rates of depression
• Lower levels of distress
• Greater resistance to colds
• Better psychological and physical well-being
• Reduced risk of cardiovascular disease
• Better coping skills

     Changing your way of thinking won't happen overnight, but by taking daily steps to improve your thoughts you'll get there. Pay attention to your self-talk, this is the unspoken thoughts that run through your head. Some of these thoughts are logical, some come from irrational misconceptions you create. Most negative thoughts are completely unnecessary. 

     To start thinking more positive, first identify your negative thinking. Here are some forms of negative thoughts:

• Personalizing: when something bad happens, you automatically blame yourself.
• Filtering: you magnify the negative aspects and filter out positive ones.
• Catastrophizing: you automatically anticipate the worst.
• Polarizing: you see things as either good or bad, black or white, nothing in between. 

     If you have negative thoughts, focus on positive thinking. Identify areas in your life that you typically think negatively about and focus on approaching one area at a time. Remember that the past does not make the future, if something negative happened it doesn't mean your whole life will be that way. Use positive words and don't allow yourself to think anything about yourself that you wouldn't say to someone else. You wouldn't call your friend a failure, so don't call yourself one. Focus on what's going well in your life, and anything bad will get better.