Blog for Self Improvement

You are immersed in popular culture, you probably spend a significant amount of time every day watching TV, listening to music. Even if you’re not doing it in your own home, you are surrounded by images, words and music in shops, bars, restaurants, everywhere you go…

Have you ever thought about the messages you are picking up and how they are affecting your life? How are they affecting your success, personal growth and your future?

The appeal of the negative

So much of what you are immersed in on a day to day basis has a negative bias. If you watch the daily news, or even read a newspaper and count the stories, most of them are about negative things. Newspaper proprietors know that the stories that sell well are ones where something bad is happening – personal stories about celebrities being unhappy, disaster stories, people dying etc.

I was in a restaurant recently and when I tunes into the background music it was the stones playing “You can’t always get what you want” followed by a cover version of “It ain’t easy”. The rest of the music continued in similar vein for a while…

These are just two examples of the predominantly negative nature of inputs that we are immersed in. Just think how hard this makes it to develop and maintain a positive mental attitude for success.

Another interesting consideration is: “why are negative news, negative songs and negative subjects in general so appealing”.

Some of the reasons why we like negative stuff might be:

Hearing about others misfortunes makes us feel less inadequate as we contemplate our own challenges

We can absolve ourselves of responsibility when things go wrong (after all you can’t always get what you want!)

We don’t have the frightening thought that we might be able to do something about our circumstances

What do you think? I’ve given you some places to start. Next time you have a few spare moments and you’re confronted with popular negativity spend some time thinking about the message.

How Can I Achieve Success, Personal Growth and a Positive Attitude?

… when I’m immersed in a negative world.

First of all, you should not cocoon yourself completely. You need to be aware of what is happening in the world so that you can figure out how you can best make a positive contribution.

Control your exposure to negative inputs – choose a time when you’re going to listen to the news, read a newspaper etc.

Spend time listening to positive stuff. The first thing in the morning is a particularly powerful time as you can set your emotional state for the whole day with your choice of what you listen to and read.

As I’ve already mentioned, you can use negative inputs as a chance to develop your understanding of your own beliefs and motivations and those of people around you by asking the simple question: “Why?”

We are live in a world where we are surrounded by negative messages. These messages are there by popular demand – many people want them. However, they have a subtle effect on us all. If you want to develop a positive mindset, you need to take steps to minimise the effect of negative messages on your life.

I hope that this article has given you some useful ideas to help you in your personal growth and to be more successful with a positive mental attitude.

By: Kevin John

Source: http://www.articledashboard.com

Would you like to learn more about success, personal growth? Visit my website for more resources, articles, and support materials about success and personal growth here. Kevin John has spent many years helping businesses owners, aspiring business owners, and private individuals to achieve success.