Rewiring your mind for success: Harnessing positive motivation

by Shaznin Hana

I think it’s safe to say that a vast majority of our society strives on personal gain. Not to say that we do things with only ourselves in mind, but rather we use it as a motivator to actually work towards our full potential.

Think about it this way, you would want to work even harder to achieve the best results you possibly can for SPM when you know you have a full and all inclusive scholarship on the line.

Personal benefits are extremely important to keep us motivated, but sometimes we’re put in situations where we don’t see any personal gain, which leads to us whining about how we adamantly not want to do it.

Some situations highlights its benefits clearly, while others might require you to look a little closer. All it takes is a little change in perception.

Optimism is key to viewing dark perilous paths and thinking there will be light at the end of it. The easiest way to embrace and cultivate optimism is by self-awareness.

Recognising negative thoughts when they fill your mind will make you question why you thought of them in the first place. When you manage to reach this level of self-awareness, you will start looking for positivity amongst all those negative thoughts.

The moment you find what you are looking for, push all the negativity aside and set that positive thought as your main goal and motivation to bring benefit towards yourself. Soon, you will come around and start doing things for your benefit instead of doing it out of obligation.

To make things easier, surrounding yourself with people who focus on the positive outlooks in life can assist you in your journey to embrace optimism.

Think of optimism as a virus. The more you surround yourself with people who catch a virus, the more likely you are to catch it yourself.

Your thoughts will be influenced by their positivity and you will soon start viewing life more positively. Thus, being around optimistic people will make you a more positive person.

Apart from that, removing the negative influences in your life will also keep you more motivated. The negative influences around you will keep you grounded on constantly negatively viewing something.

Let the positivity outweigh the negativity and you will finally be able to see more benefits than drawbacks to a situation.

However, this does not apply to all situations. Sometimes our negative thoughts are vital to keep us safe from situations that may cause irreversible damage. Therefore, it is important to realize when the personal benefits we would like to obtain are drawbacks in disguise.

We require logic as much as optimism and it is important to keep ourselves as level-headed as possible to avoid making rash decisions.

In the end, it is all about what we perceive as beneficial and disadvantageous and what we choose as our motivation.