As an entrepreneur, conquering challenge and failure is essential to
the success of your business. You can learn to cultivate that resilience
by training your brain to stay positive when times are tough.
"People tend to have a cognitive bias toward their failures, and
toward negativity," says Matthew Della Porta, a positive psychologist
and organizational consultant. Our brains are more likely to seek out
negative information and store it more quickly to memory.
Of course, that bias is not always bad. Acknowledging problems and
facing failures can lead us to better solutions. But too often, we go
overboard, and beat ourselves up for our failures or let ourselves dwell
in the negative.
By consciously increasing our focus on the positive, we start to even
the balance. We find a happy medium where we can address failures and
challenges without letting them get us down, leaving us more motivated,
productive, and likely to succeed.
Try these three tips to help you train your brain to stay positive
1. Express gratitude.
Negative events loom large unless you consciously balance them out.
"When you're faced with challenges, it's important to take stock of
what's going well," Della Porta says. Thinking about the good in your
life can help balance that bias, giving your brain the extra time it
needs to register and remember a positive event.
To help your brain store positive events, reflect on what you're
grateful for and why at least once a week. Write down your blessings,
such as the opportunity to pursue a career you love or a family that
supports you. If you prefer a daily habit, then keep a nightly log of
good things that happened that day. "Just keep it very short," Della
Porta says. "If you try to hammer [gratitude] home, then it becomes
mundane." Day One, a journaling app for Apple devices ($4.99), or
OhLife, a free email-based journal, can to help you do this.
2. Repeat positive affirmations.
As any politician or advertiser knows, the more often you hear a
message, the more likely you are to believe it. The same goes for
messages about who you are and what you are capable of doing. By
repeating positive affirmations with conviction several times each
morning, you are training your brain to believe them. "Over time, you'll
start to internalize them," Della Porta says. Repeat your affirmations
silently if you feel self-conscious.
Choose two to three affirmations that represent your values and
goals, such as 'I can handle whatever comes my way,' 'There is plenty of
time,' or 'I'm getting better every day.' The repetition will influence
the way you interpret negative events, making you more resilient.
"Especially if you're predisposed to negative thinking, this can be
extremely effective," Della Porta says.
3. Challenge negative thoughts.
Each time a negative thought arises, we choose how to respond. If
left to our own devices, we tend to dwell. Our brains home in on
negative events so they seem much bigger and more significant than they
are. To combat that, start by imagining the thought as separate from
yourself, as something you can observe and deconstruct. "Get in the
habit of distancing yourself instead of dwelling," Della Porta says.
Next, challenge negative thoughts that are unfairly self-deprecating.
For example, if your startup doesn't get the traction you hoped, you
might think, "I'm a failure." That's untrue and unproductive. Instead,
practice interpreting the same event differently. You might say, I
worked really hard but I didn't account for a quirk of the market, so
I'm disappointed, but now I'm going to try again with new information.
That interpretation is gentler, truer, and more proactive. "At first,
[this strategy will] be hard and you'll think it doesn't work," Della
Porta says. "But over time, it'll become automatic and negative thoughts
will be less likely to come up. No one does this naturally; you have to
learn and practice."
By:
Nadia Goodman. is a freelance writer in Brooklyn, NY. She is a former
editor at YouBeauty.com, where she wrote about the psychology of health
and beauty. She earned a B.A. in English from Northwestern University
and an M.A. in Clinical Psychology from Columbia University. Visit her
website, nadiagoodman.com.
Source : www.entrepreneur.com
Source : www.entrepreneur.com
