Your outlook in life can affect your current mindset and your future. For this reason, you should always strive to stay positive, change negative thoughts, and choose happiness over anything else. However, attaining these positive qualities can be difficult if you’re facing a difficult time in your life. So, how do you deal with difficulties and still have a positive perception in life?
In this article, you’ll learn some ways to transform your outlook in life so you can live happily and successfully.
Consult an Expert
If you feel sadder than usual and your negative thoughts hinder you from completing your daily tasks, it’s best to consult with an expert. Conveniently, you can key-in ‘find a counselor near me’ in search engines to come up with plenty of options.
A life coach or guidance counselor can guide you in transforming your outlook in life through any of the following therapies:
- Individual counseling
- Family counseling
- Couples counseling
- Hypnosis
- Group therapy
Apply The Scientific Problem-Solving Process
Life can be full of problems. However, each problem has a potential solution. So, why not apply a more scientific approach to your problems? A scientific approach transforms your outlook in life as it’ll help you become more objective instead of being subjective or too emotional.
To help you out, here are the basic steps when applying the scientific method:
- Step One: Identify The Problem
Ask yourself relevant questions that’ll help you get down to the root cause of your problem. Always remember that any problem can’t be resolved if you don’t understand its nature.
Sometimes, problems seem vague, which are often caused by anxiety. So, it’s good to sort your problems once you’ve identified them. In this way, you can set your priorities by solving your urgent problems first.
- Step Two: Formulate a Hypothesis
Once you’ve gathered information about your problem, it’s time to form a hypothesis. Of course, you need to be thorough first before you can come up with a sound hypothesis. For instance, if your problems may involve your supervisor, you should look at your current job situation and determine if it is the right fit for you.
- Step Three: Test The Hypothesis
You need to cite some possible scenarios to determine if your hypothesis or theory is feasible and can help solve your problem or not. In the scientific method, this step is the ‘experimentation,’ wherein you need to collect data. During an experiment, it’s important to observe and record findings. So, how do you test the hypothesis of your life problems?
- Step Four: Collect The Data
Data collection includes recording your observations and measurements from the experiment. Like the example given above, it’s important to gauge the advantages and disadvantages of resigning and looking for a new job. Takedown notes while thinking about them so you’ll see the written output and rethink again.
Are you sure you won’t be running the same problem with a new supervisor? Check your work history. Did you have similar problems with your previous jobs? If yes, then there’s a high chance that the problem is internally or within you, and applying for a new job won’t resolve your problem.
- Step Five: Analyze The Data
Analyzing data means interpreting the results of your data gathering. Did you find some relevance in the data? At this point, things should be clearer than the previous steps.
- Step Six: Draw Conclusions
Draw conclusions after you examine the data. Your conclusion will either confirm the hypothesis or not.
Stop Complaining
Complaining is a normal human reaction to life problems. It’s a way to express thoughts and emotions, releasing stress and anxiety. However, excessive complaining can also be detrimental to one’s mental health.
Constantly complaining may open the feeling that you’re seemingly stuck and can’t move on to your life’s next stage. This is because it’s hard to take concrete actions to resolve your problem if you’re always complaining. Worse, you’ll also affect other people, like your spouse and children, with such negative behavior. So, how do you stop complaining?
Take a look at the following fool-proof ways to stop complaining:
- Practice the law of attraction
- Surround yourself with optimistic people
- Set your priorities
Start Acting
Once you’ve passed through the complaining stage, congratulate yourself because you’re about to go to the most important phase of transforming your outlook in life: the ‘action phase.’
Here’s how you can go about taking action to help you attain a more positive outlook in life:
- Forgive yourself: The first step towards freeing yourself from your past experiences is to learn how to forgive yourself. You deserve it. There are things you probably have regretted doing in the past. But it’s time to get over them.
- Accept reality: Life and death are real. There are things in life that you can never control, such as other people’s feelings and treatment towards you. However, by accepting this reality, you’ll gain full control of how you perceive yourself and life overall.
- Improve yourself: The possible reason why you’re not seeing light or hope in your life is probably because you’re stagnant. So, why not learn new things to improve yourself?
A higher job position means a better career and morale for many people, which can be true for you as well. You might tired of being underpaid or doing the same thing every day. So, upgrade yourself by taking online courses or trying to make money through other means, such as online freelance jobs.
- Help others: Sometimes, people don’t appreciate their life because they perceive themselves as the unluckiest ones. So, go out or check the latest news. You’ll find many people who are suffering from poverty, hunger, violence, and racism. Take the time to help those less fortunate and this will make you not only appreciate your own life but also do something positive for the world.
- Engage In Productive And Meaningful Activities Staying in your bedroom or inside the house all day alone can cause loneliness. You are limiting yourself from experiencing the simple joys life has to offer. One way to appreciate life is by being closer to nature.
Engage in productive and meaningful activities that can draw you closer to Mother Earth and the people who matter most to you, such as the following:
- Gardening: Gardening is an environment-friendly and productive hobby. Digging the soil, planting, trimming, and watering the plants can help reduce your stress and anxiety. Gardening may also transform your mindset into something brighter, hopeful, and more passionate. So, why not go to your garden to breathe fresh air and observe the sky, the beautiful flowers, plants, and trees?
- Sports: Many people find sports a great outlet to release negative energy. That’s why many people play sports to win against their inner battles. Sports may also help divert one’s attention from a cycle of overthinking and fear and help boost confidence.
- Teaching: Being able to impart your knowledge and skills to other people is extremely rewarding. Are you good at baking, cooking, woodworking, sewing, or painting? Being a teacher not only allows you to help other people, but you’ll also get to transform your outlook in life. Be a teacher or mentor to your children, siblings, parents, or your friends.
- Adopt a pet: You might be miles away from your family because you’re working in the city and they’re in the countryside. If this is the case, adopting a pet as a companion is a great option.
Even if you’re with your family, you might be searching for something new, and a new pet is a great addition to the family. Adopt a cute dog or cat and you’ll learn how to take good care of others and yourself, changing your perspective about love, caring, and helping.
Live a Healthy Lifestyle
Living a healthy lifestyle is also a key to happiness. If you feel healthy and look good inside out, then it’ll reflect in your thoughts and actions. Healthy food can help improve your mental health. Hence, your perception of life.
Just think about the moment you overeat or sleep on your bed all day. It feels lazy, unhealthy, and boring. On the other hand, if you exercise, eat right, and take care of yourself properly, you feel healthier and happier.
Conclusion
Transform your outlook in life by taking full control of your thoughts and feelings, and not the other way around. You can apply a more scientific approach to resolve your problems. Stop complaining and start acting to attain your life goals. While staying positive is easier said than done, consider embracing this good attitude for your personal growth.