I want you to really try hard to remember a difficult situation that you’ve been in recently. But I don’t want you to pick just any difficult situation; I want you to pick a situation that didn’t produce any good for you. You see, sometimes bad situations end up bringing us some sliver of positivity, but some do not. Pick a memory that only makes you conjure up memories of negativity. And if you can’t think of any difficulties that you have faced as of late, then I want you to go back and think of a different memory that was further back in time. Just make sure that whatever memory you pick is a vivid one.

Now when you think about this memory, try and think about why it was so difficult for you. Did you have someone who was constantly making that situation more difficult? Or did you not put your all into it because whatever you were doing wasn’t something that you really cared about doing? Do you think that the situation could have gone differently? Do you think that having a more optimistic perspective about the situation would have helped you to deal with it better?

You see positive thinker, any difficult situation that you go through has the potential to be not so bad, if only you choose to see some good in it. All situations (no matter how big or how small) have an opportunity to provide you with growth, positivity, or understanding. Even if you decide to give up on that difficulty, there is some positivity in that. If you decided to give up on it, then you also decide to give up the stress associated with your problem, and less stress is always a good thing. And now maybe that you’re looking back at it, you can also see that you were able to move on to something even better since you decide to let go of that difficulty. You may have been upset that you devoted all of your energy into trying to make a toxic relationship work and it still failed, but if it hadn’t failed then you wouldn’t’ve had an opportunity to meet someone new who valued you for all of your greatness. Even if you didn’t see it in that moment, good did come from your situation. There’s always good.

Positive thinker, it’s important that you practice being an optimist as often as you can. If you’re a naturally pessimistic person, trying to be optimistic all of the time would be a ridiculous request to make. People who are naturally optimistic still have problems being optimistic all of the time, so if you’re someone who leans towards pessimism then just make a goal to be optimistic about something everyday (even if it’s the same thing everyday). If you happen to be looking for a job then I want you to keep on working towards finding a job, and keep on believing that you’ll find something. This can be your thought process everyday until you actually end up with a new job. It’s probably going to be a conscious effort at first (after all it can be pretty hard to see good when you’ve just lost your job and you still have bills to pay), but finding the good in every situation (even the bad ones) is a good practice to have. And the thing is, if you practice being optimistic enough, it will start to come to you easier and easier until it becomes second nature. So practice, and practice, and practice until that becomes the case.

If you’re already a naturally optimistic person, then I want you to try and find more things to be optimistic about. Maybe there’s that one thing that you just can’t stop having a pessimistic outlook towards. Try being more optimistic about that thing. Find the good in it, and practice your optimism where it’s its weakest. There’s no harm with becoming more optimistic. Everyone can do with a little bit more optimism positive thinker (even those people who already seem to have a lot).

Positive thinker, optimism is a pretty powerful tool. When you choose to be optimistic you are also choosing to make life less burdensome. Only finding the bad in something can drain you of what positivity you do have, and that’s not something you want to do because positivity makes life brighter. Yes, there are difficulties in life, but choosing to see the potential or possibilities that that difficulty may have just might allow you to release some of those burdensome feelings.

Get rid of your burdens. Choose the power of optimism, not pessimism.

Winston Churchill got it right when he said, “A pessimist sees the difficulty in every situation; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”

Be the latter option positive thinker.