Have you ever been told that you’re too hard on yourself? What about toward others? No one appreciates negative criticism, even if you believe you’re being helpful. Believe it or not, your inner self doesn’t appreciate it when you criticize yourself, either.
Luckily, you can learn to have a more positive attitude toward yourself and others, and it isn’t as hard as you might think. With a simple action here and altering a habit there, you’ll soon find your outlook changing.
Try these strategies:
Give compliments. When you feel compelled to criticize or judge someone, use your willpower to say something nice instead.
You could even keep your compliment to yourself and simply think it. However, you’ll be surprised how much your relationships improve if you’re willing to speak your kindness aloud.
Think about your positive attributes for a few minutes each day. Catch yourself when you start to speak negatively to yourself. Say something positive instead.
Consider the difference between giving advice and being critical. Advice is helpful and has a positive intention. Criticism has a negative intent and isn’t helpful.
Think carefully – what are your true intentions? What are you honestly trying to accomplish?
Do you criticize yourself? Why? Imagine someone you cared about was in the same situation. What advice would you give them?
Start your day with a positive attitude. By getting your day off to a positive start, you’ll be less likely to be critical of yourself or others.
Consider what makes you feel Is it music? Reading inspirational quotes? Remembering your favorite vacation? Making a list of things that fill you with gratitude?
Start your day with positive thoughts and energy. Carry that feeling for as long as you can each day.
Spend more time thinking about what you want, rather than what you don’t want. Thinking about what you don’t want is addressing life from a negative perspective. Keep your thoughts focused on what you do want. Your mood will be lighter and you’ll treat yourself and others more kindly too.
Allow situations and people to be as they are. One of the easiest ways to make yourself unhappy is to believe that everything is supposed to be a certain way. You might believe that others should thank you for a compliment or offer you their seat on the bus, but they might not feel that way.
In reality, everyone views the world differently, and your views aren’t any more correct than anyone else’s. If you think that everyone else should automatically see things through your perspective, you’re likely to be critical and miserable.
Understand the situation. Ensure that you have a complete and accurate understanding before jumping to conclusions. The most critical people in the world are often operating with insufficient information. Before you say something negative, make an effort to get the whole story.
Perhaps the most important issue is self-esteem. Those that are critical of others often do so to make themselves feel more important, superior, or dominant.
It’s also possible you’re using criticism as a way of preventing others from getting too close to you.
Consider why you’re critical of others and yourself. The solution becomes more apparent if you correctly identify the cause.
If you have a tendency to be critical, you can enjoy your life more by making a positive change. Learn to be kind and patient. It just takes practice. Be kind to everyone you meet. Be kind and patient with yourself, too.
Before you know it, this behavior will become a habit and you’ll discover that you’ve acquired a new, positive outlook regarding yourself, others, and life itself.
Life can be a little challenging sometimes, especially when a narcissist is around.
And who can blame you for feeling discouraged, burnt out and often times, depressed? Dealing with a narcissist in a toxic relationship is hell. And even going through narcissistic abuse recovery is no picnic.
When you’re feeling blue, sometimes all you need to do is change your mind–to change the way you’re looking at the situation.
That’s why I’ve pulled together this list of 158 quotes to inspire you when you’re feeling down. Know of one I missed? Let me know!
Positive Thinking Quotes to Inspire You When You Are Feeling Down
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit.” – Aristotle
“All things are difficult before they are easy.” – Thomas Fuller
“All you can change is yourself, but sometimes that changes everything!” – Gary W Goldstein
“An attitude of positive expectation is the mark of the superior personality.”- Brian Tracy
“Be soft. Do not let the world make you hard. Do not let pain make you hate. Do not let the bitterness steal your sweetness. Take pride that even though the rest of the world may disagree, you still believe it to be a beautiful place.” – Kurt Vonnegut
“Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy.” –Norman Vincent Peale
“Don’t let life discourage you; everyone who got where he is had to begin where he was.” – Richard L. Evans
“Happiness is an attitude. We either make ourselves miserable, or happy and strong. The amount of work is the same.” – Francesca Reigler
“Happiness often sneaks in through a door you didn’t know you left open.” – John Barrymore
“Happiness, like unhappiness, is a proactive choice.” – Stephen Covey
“Hate. It has caused a lot of problems in this world but has not solved one yet.” – Maya Angelou
“Hope is a waking dream.” – Aristotle
“I am the greatest, I said that even before I knew I was.” – Muhammad Ali
“I do believe we’re all connected. I do believe in positive energy. I do believe in the power of prayer. I do believe in putting good out into the world. And I believe in taking care of each other.” – Harvey Fierstein
“I do not believe in taking the right decision, I take a decision and make it right.” ― Muhammad Ali Jinnah
“I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.” – Douglas Adams
“I’ve had a lot of worries in my life, most of which never happened” – Mark Twain
“I’ve learned that no matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow.” – Maya Angelou
“I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” – Michael Jordan
“If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.” – Milton Berle
“If someone tells you, “You can’t” they really mean, “I can’t.” – Sean Stephenson
“If we’re growing, we’re always going to be out of our comfort zone.” – John C Maxwell
“If you can change your mind, you can change your life.” – William James
“If you can dream it, then you can achieve it. You will get all you want in life if you help enough other people get what they want.” – Zig Ziglar
“If you look the right way, you can see that the whole world is a garden.” ― Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden
“If you think you can do a thing or think you can’t do a thing, you’re right.” – Henry Ford
“If you want light to come into your life, you need to stand where it is shining.” – Guy Finley
“In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: It goes on.” – Robert Frost
“Keep your face always toward the sunshine – and shadows will fall behind you.” ― Walt Whitman
“Learning is a gift. Even when pain is your teacher.” – Maya Watson
“Life has many ways of testing a person’s will, either by having nothing happen at all or by having everything happen all at once.” – Paulo Coelho
“Life is a bowl of cherries. Some cherries are rotten while others are good; its your job to throw out the rotten ones and forget about them while you enjoy eating the ones that are good! There are two kinds of people: those who choose to throw out the good cherries and wallow in all the rotten ones, and those who choose to throw out all the rotten ones and savor all the good ones.” ― C. JoyBell C.
“Life is a gift, and it offers us the privilege, opportunity, and responsibility to give something back by becoming more.” – Tony Robbins
“No matter what the situation, remind yourself “I have a choice.” – Deepak Chopra
“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.” – Thomas Edison
“Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.” – Winston Churchill
“Success is falling nine times and getting up ten.” – Jon Bon Jovi
“Success is not to be measured by the position someone has reached in life, but the obstacles he has overcome while trying to succeed.” – Booker T. Washington
“Take chances, make mistakes. That’s how you grow. Pain nourishes your courage. You have to fail in order to practice being brave.” – Mary Tyler Moore
“The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.” – William James
“The best way to gain self-confidence is to do what you are afraid to do.” – Unknown
“The difference between stumbling blocks and stepping stones is how you use them.” – Unknown
“The difference in winning and losing is most often…not quitting.” – Walt Disney
“The next time you feel slightly uncomfortable with the pressure in your life, remember no pressure, no diamonds. Pressure is a part of success.” – Eric Thomas
“The only place where your dream becomes impossible is in your own thinking.” – Robert H Schuller
“The past has no power over the present moment.” – Eckhart Tolle
“The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential… these are the keys that will unlock the door to personal excellence.” – Confucius
“There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle, or the mirror that reflects it.” – Edith Wharton
“There is little difference in people, but that little difference makes a big difference. The little difference is attitude. The big difference is whether it is positive or negative.” – W. Clement Stone
“To avoid criticism do nothing, say nothing, be nothing.” – Elbert Hubbard
“Today is a new beginning, a chance to turn your failures into achievements & your sorrows into so goods. No room for excuses.” – Joel Brown
“We are all here for some special reason. Stop being a prisoner of your past. Become the architect of your future.” – Robin Sharma
“We are responsible for what we are, and whatever we wish ourselves to be, we have the power to make ourselves.” – Swami Vivekananda
“We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.” – Anais Nin
“Whatever you want to do, do it now. There are only so many tomorrows.” – Michael Landon
“When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. That’s my religion.” – Abraham Lincoln
“When I hear somebody sigh, ‘Life is hard,’ I am always tempted to ask, ‘Compared to what?’” – Sydney Harris
“When the world pushes you to your knees, you’re in the perfect position to pray.” – Rumi
“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.” – Viktor Frankl
“With everything that has happened to you, you can either feel sorry for yourself or treat what has happened as a gift. Everything is either an opportunity to grow or an obstacle to keep you from growing. You get to choose.” – Dr. Wayne W Dyer
“You are never too old to set another goal or dream a new dream.” – C.S Lewis
“You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you stop to look fear in the face.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
“You must make a decision that you are going to move on. It wont happen automatically. You will have to rise up and say, ‘I don’t care how hard this is, I don’t care how disappointed I am, I’m not going to let this get the best of me. I’m moving on with my life.” – Joel Osteen
“You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.” – Buddha
”Act or accept.” – Anonymous
”Talent is formed in solitude, character in the bustle of the world.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
”You are what you think about all day long.” — Dr. Robert Schuller, Adversity introduces a man to himself.- Author Unknown
A happy person is not a person in a certain set of circumstances, but rather a person with a certain set of attitudes.- Hugh Downs
Accept Change & Survive
Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter. – Mark Twain
An idea can turn to dust or magic, depending on the talent that rubs against it. – Bill Bernbach
An obstacle is often a stepping stone. – Prescott
Anyone can do something when they WANT to do it. Really successful people do things when they don’t want to do it. – Dr. Phil
Attitudes are contagious. Make yours worth catching. – Unknown
Being defeated is only a temporary condition; giving up is what makes it permanent. – Marilyn vos Savant, Author and Advice Columnist
By working faithfully eight hours a day you may eventually get to be boss and work twelve hours a day. – Robert Frost
Defeat is not bitter unless you swallow it. – Joe Clark
Desire is the starting point of all achievement, not a hope, not a wish, but a keen pulsating desire which transcends everything. – Napoleon Hill
Do first things first, and second things not at all. – Peter Drucker.
Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do. – John Wooden
Do not wait to strike till the iron is hot; but make it hot by striking. – William B. Sprague
Enduring habits I hate…. Yes, at the very bottom of my soul I feel grateful to all my misery and bouts of sickness and everything about me that is imperfect, because this sort of thing leaves me with a hundred backdoors through which I can escape from enduring habits. – Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science, 1882
Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better. – Samuel Beckett
Experience is what you get when you don’t get what you want. – Dan Stanford
Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor. – Truman Capote
Fall down seven times, get up eight. – Japanese Proverb
Flops are a part of life’s menu and I’ve never been a girl to miss out on any of the courses. – Rosalind Russell
Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds. – Albert Einstein
Have the passion, take the action & magic will happen. – Bar Rafaeli
He who has a why to live can bear almost anyhow. – Friedrich Nietzsche
I am an optimist. It does not seem too much use being anything else. – Winston Churchill
I can’t understand why people are frightened by new ideas. I’m frightened by old ones. – John Cage
I know for sure that what we dwell on is who we become. – Oprah Winfrey
I think and think for months and years. Ninety-nine times, the conclusion is false. The hundredth time I am right. – Albert Einstein
If you keep saying things are going to be bad, you have a chance of being a prophet. – Isaac B. Singer
If you want to make your dreams come true, the first thing you have to do is wake up. – J.M. Power
If you want to test your memory, try to recall what you were worrying about one year ago today. – E. Joseph Cossman
If you worry about yesterday’s failures, then today’s successes will be few. – Anonymous
If you’re going through hell, keep going. – Winston Churchill
If you’re going to be able to look back on something and laugh about it, you might as well laugh about it now. – Marie Osmond
In any situation, the best thing you can do is the right thing; the next best thing you can do is the wrong thing; the worst thing you can do is nothing. – Theodore Roosevelt
In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. – Thomas Jefferson
Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great. – Mark Twain
Keep on going and the chances are you will stumble on something, perhaps when you are least expecting it. I have never heard of anyone stumbling on something sitting down. – Charles F. Kettering, Engineer and Inventor
Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do. -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Life is “trying things to see if they work” – Ray Bradbury
Life is 10% what happens to us and 90% how we react to it. – Dennis P. Kimbro
Life is a shipwreck but we must not forget to sing in the lifeboats. – Voltaire
Losers visualize the penalties of failure. Winners visualize the rewards of success. – Unknown
Many great ideas go unexecuted, and many great executioners are without ideas. One without the other is worthless. – Tim Blixseth
Motivation is a fire from within. If someone else tries to light that fire under you, chances are it will burn very briefly. – Stephen R. Covey
People become really quite remarkable when they start thinking that they can do things. When they believe in themselves they have the first secret of success. – Norman Vincent Peale
People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
Positive anything is better than negative thinking. – Elbert Hubbard, Ray Norda, Chairman, Novell
Remember that happiness is a way of travel, not a destination.- Roy Goodman
Resist Change & Die
Setting an example is not the main means of influencing others; it is the only means.- Albert Einstein
Some succeed because they are destined. Some succeed because they are determined. – Unknown
Sometimes even to live is an act of courage. – Seneca
Sometimes you just got to give yourself what you wish someone else would give you. – Dr Phil
Sooner or later, those who win are those who think they can. – Richard Bach
Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will. – Mahatma Gandhi
Success consists of doing the common things of life uncommonly well. – Unknown
Success is a state of mind. If you want success, start thinking of yourself as a success. – Dr. Joyce Brothers
Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm. – Sir Winston Churchill
Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes but don’t quit. – Conrad Hilton
Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.” – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
The best way out is always through.- Robert Frost
The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up. – Mark Twain
The best way to predict the future is to create it. – Unknown
The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra. – Unknown
The only people who find what they are looking for in life are the fault finders. – Foster’s Law
The secret to life is meaningless unless you discover it yourself. – W. Somerset Maugham
The sun shines and warms and lights us and we have no curiosity to know why this is so; but we ask the reason of all evil, of pain, and hunger, and mosquitoes and silly people. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
The surest way not to fail is to determine to succeed.- Richard B. Sheridan
The world is more malleable than you think and it’s waiting for you to hammer it into shape. – Bono
There are only two rules for being successful. One, figure out exactly what you want to do, and two, do it. – Mario Cuomo
There are two primary choices in life: to accept conditions as they exist, or accept the responsibility for changing them. – Dr. Denis Waitley
There is no education like adversity. – Disraeli
Those who wish to sing, always find a song. – Swedish Proverb
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. – Mark Twain
Vision doesn’t usually come as a lightening bolt. Rather it comes as a slow crystallization of life challenges that we one day recognize as a beautiful diamond with great value to ourselves and others. – Dr. Michael Norwood
Vision without action is daydream. Action without vision is nightmare. – Japanese Proverb
We are all inventors, each sailing out on a voyage of discovery, guided each by a private chart, of which there is no duplicate. The world is all gates, all opportunities. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit.- Aristotle
We judge of man’s wisdom by his hope. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say” — Ralph Waldo Emerson”
What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals. – Goethe
Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it. – Mahatma Gandhi
Whenever you find whole world against you just turn around and lead the world. – Anonymous
Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it’s time to pause and reflect. – Mark Twain
Where the willingness is great, the difficulties cannot be great. – Machiavelli.
Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right. – Henry Ford
Winners lose much more often than losers. So if you keep losing but you’re still trying, keep it up! You’re right on track. – Matthew Keith Groves
You can get everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want. – Zig Ziglar
You must be the change you want to see in the world. – Mahatma Gandhi
“Positive thinking will let you do everything better than negative thinking will.” ~Zig Ziglar
Do you feel like you are always talking yourself out of success? As soon as you start to set goals for yourself, do you suddenly have nagging thoughts about how you aren’t up to the task or how you simply aren’t qualified to carry it through?
If you have ever experienced either situation, you need to change the way you respond to your inner dialogue. Instead of obeying your negative commands, you can use positive self-talk to counter the negativity and overcome nearly all anxious thoughts.
Setting Goals and Sticking to Them with Positive Self-Talk
Are you initially filled with excitement when you first set goals for yourself? Are these thoughts then followed by self-doubt and self-defeating thoughts that stop you in your tracks before you even get started?
It can be difficult to make the most of your life when you are constantly talking yourself out of being a success. It can be frustrating and discouraging to have these thoughts constantly plaguing you. Many of us, in fact, don’t even realize we have them! All we know is that we don’t have the confidence to stick to our plans and reach our goals.
But there’s another way!
Positive self-talk is an effective way to set goals and ensure that you stick to them, even if you have never been able to do this before. The way this works is that you decide what goal is important to you, and then you plan the logistics of how you are going to attain this goal. When self-doubt starts kicking in, you will respond with affirmations that prove your success without surrendering to the negative pressure. Since you’re reading this article, it’s clear that you’re no quitter and you’re certainly not a failure, so start believing in yourself!
Re-Programming Your Mind
Affirmations are essentially positive statements that re-program your mind for the positive. The moment you have a self-defeating thought you’d be able to counter the negative with a motivating statement. An example of a positive affirmation is: “I am worthy of great success,” or “I see myself in the winner’s circle.” What this does is replace negativity with thoughts that will help you move toward your goals instead of further away from them.
Positive self-talk is easier to implement than you might think. You may not be aware of the severity of the negative dialogue currently within your mind. However, once you begin with positive self-talk, you will suddenly realize that you are self-sabotaging the goals you set for yourself from the minute that you make them. This process can open your eyes to exactly how much this inner conversation has been interfering with your life. You’ll feel hopeful that you can now set goals and surpass them.
Through positive self-talk you will be able easily set long and short-term goals for yourself. And when you use affirmations, you’ll have accessible tools to help you push yourself further than ever before. Learning to quiet negativity with positive thoughts is a great move toward setting and attaining future goals with ease.
How do you talk yourself into success? Share your thoughts in the comments section, below!
Have you tried Happify yet? I just got a beta invite the other day and have been poking around–it seems pretty interesting.
The concept, as I understand it so far, is that you play interactive games, do self-assessments and quizzes and keep a sort of public/semi-public diary–all of which are directed at helping you be a happier person, over all.
I am kind of digging it so far–the games and activities aren’t time-consuming for the most part so far, and I like the idea of the guided gratitude journals.
Is it working? Well, it’s not NOT working. Generally, I’m pretty happy and easygoing–but I’m interested to know how it works for others.
I’ve got five Happify invite codes to give away!
Anyway, I was just given the opportunity to give away five invites, so I thought I’d make an offer–if anyone’s interested, comment below and I’ll add you to my list. The first five comments get the first five invites I’ve got as of right now.
Can we really train ourselves to become happier? Science says yes. Sonja Lyubomirsky, professor of psychology at the University of CA-Riverside, is among several researchers who’ve determined the role genetics plays in one’s well-being. Although each of us has a certain genetic set point in the way we do for weight, genetics only determines 50% of our happiness levels. We determine most of the remainder by choosing our behaviors, actions, and thoughts.
When we have new experiences or look at something in a different way, neurons carve out new pathways in our brain to process that fresh information. By practicing certain techniques, we can create stronger neural connections in the regions of our brain associated with attention, motivation and empathy. And we’re just beginning to identify what behavioral and mental techniques work best to increase our well-being.
Recent research into the kind of “interventions” (i.e. “exercises”) designed to promote positive emotional qualities, such as kindness and mindfulness, suggests that such qualities may be the product of skills we can learn through training—in the same way that practice improves our musical or athletic abilities.
At Happify, we’re translating the latest cutting-edge research into fun and interactive, science-based activities and games to teach you the skills of happiness. Optimism, self-confidence, gratitude, hope, compassion, purpose, empathy—these are all qualities that anyone can own.
You just have to learn how. And doing so will change your life.
What do you think? Is it something you’ll try? Want a Happify invite code? Let me know in the comments section, below! I’ll just need your email address.
Today, and every day, I am dedicated to self-development.
Each day, my life is filled with opportunity. I can choose to learn and grow in so many ways.
What motivates me most, however, are opportunities to live my highest vision of myself. Therefore, today and every day, I am dedicated to self-development.
My life is a path of endless growth. Because of this, I am forgiving of times when I may say or do something that I later wish I had done differently.
Each night before bed, I reflect on my day. In addition to assessing opportunities for change, I also give myself praise for the things I do well.
If I feel fatigued by the pressures of life, I remind myself of the many benefits I gain from my diligent pursuit of self-development. One of these benefits is inner peace instead of caving in under pressure. This contemplation always motivates me to renew my efforts, and I do so, invigorated.
Today, I am dedicated to self-development. I am thankful for every opportunity to re-create myself anew. And I recommit to growing toward my highest vision of myself, each and every day.
Self-Reflection Questions:
1. What are some of the self-development “projects” I have been working on lately?
2. Which projects challenge me most right now? Why? How can I overcome these challenges?
3. In what ways have I changed intentionally, for the better, over the past year or two?
, Author and Advice Columnist
Have you tried Happify yet? I just got a beta invite the other day and have been poking around–it seems pretty interesting.
