Half full or half empty? The choice is yours

I have been accused on many occasions of being a ‘glass half full’ kinda girl - an optimist and OK I hold my hands up to it, I am.

There are many reasons why I have chosen to take this view of life and let me make it very clear it is a choice. For years not only did I see my glass as half empty but I was sure that someone else was siphoning off what little I did have! Life for me then was one of glimpsed happiness but in the main I felt stressed. I had a choice and it’s a choice I believe that everyone has.

Research has shown that being an optimist can, on average, add another nine years to your life! Optimistic people are more likely to be promoted in work and, even though being an optimist may not guarantee you continual great health, it can enable you to deal with difficult situations head on and emerge less distressed.

So, how can you change your point of view? For me, it was when I learnt that our brains behave in a similar way to Google – whatever you type into the search engine it will look for and give you information/evidence about that subject. For example, type ‘credit crunch’ into Google and you’ll get information about business failures, redundancy, debt and people losing money. Add the words ‘how to make money during a …’ at the beginning and hit search again. This time you’ll find it is quite a different story. Suddenly more positive pages appear offering ideas, thoughts, blogs and you realise there is hope; two sides of the same coin, whichever route you choose impacts on how you feel. I know when I was pessimistic I felt unmotivated and stressed, now I choose to look for the positive and take an optimistic attitude, which leaves me much more motivated in business and in life.

As the saying goes… ‘The choice is yours!’