Three Ways to Destroy Negative Thinking
No matter how well you’re doing personally or professionally, or if you find yourself in a rut, all of us have hundreds of negative thoughts every day. It’s natural and its human nature.
Yet those negative thoughts can have a serious impact on our careers and our ability to balance it with the rest of our lives. The key when we have these negative thoughts is to combat them and use tools to change our inner dialogue quickly so we stay the course.
While we all have negative thoughts daily, it’s how we deal with them, filter them and then correct them that helps us get ahead and make better choices.
Negative automatic thoughts (NATs) tend to be involuntary, irrational, enemy-creating, and can be changed. Yet until we recognize and figure out ways to deal with them, they can hurt us greatly. The key is to tackle the NATs and find our way to a more positive inner voice.
Here are three ways to do this:
Journal your thoughts, what caused them and what behaviors they led to. By doing this, you’ll be able to see how irrational some of the NATs are and how you can better deal with them. This helps you identify the facts from the emotions.
Once you’ve identified these thoughts, break down the event and why it made you feel the way you did. By identifying the underlying emotions, you’re able to more clearly see why you felt more irrational. That way you’re prepared to better handle the situation in the business setting and it helps you personally.
Train yourself to use better thinking habits. Shutting down that inner critic is vital to being a confident pro and person. Positive affirmations are important, but training yourself to overcome the power of that inner critic is a must. Stopping, writing down your thoughts and emotions will help you identify why they’re irrational and lead you to better choices and behavior.
While we all have negative thoughts daily, it’s how we deal with them, filter them and then correct them that helps us get ahead and make better choices.
Try it for a few weeks and see the difference it truly makes.
Don’t let the inner critic try to convince you not to.
Scott Gulbransen is a veteran of the digital marketing and communications world. Having managed public relations, social media and digital marketing at brands like Intuit, Applebee’s and H&R Block, and in college athletics at his alma mater UNLV, he currently serves as the Global Head of Digital Content at Haymon Boxing, creators of the Premier Boxing Champions series. Gulbransen resides in his adopted hometown of Las Vegas. #BattleBorn