People are natural pessimists. From an evolutionary point of view, it makes sense. The early humans who were better able to anticipate bad or negative events occurring were more likely to be prepared for them. If you avoid danger rather than look for fun and joy, you’re more likely to survive.

But you’re not more likely to be happy.

Humans today don’t have to worry nearly so much about survival. But we’re still hardwired from thousands of years of evolution to focus on the negative.

So, what can we do?

We are smart enough to learn to quiet the negative thoughts and train ourselves to focus on the joy of everyday life. I like to do it in 3s.

If you’re not a natural writer or journal-er, then you can still use this technique to help train yourself into being more positive and finding more fulfillment out of the everyday. But, if you do like writing or want to challenge yourself, I recommend writing these down every day. It creates a wonderful log that you can reference when you start to feel most negative. It can remind you of an ideal, positive version of yourself.

So here are the 3 things to give thought to every day:

• Think of or write down 3 things that made you happy today.

• Think of or write down 3 things you appreciate about someone close to you.

• Think of or write down 3 things you were proud of today.

The trick to making this work is to be specific.

You don’t have to write down why these made you feel happy, appreciative, or proud, but it’ll likely trigger that in your brain as a side effect.

At first, it might take you a few minutes and you’ll have to rack your brain a bit to come up with all 9…but, by doing this mindfulness technique regularly, you’ll find that you start to think of it throughout the day. It will get easier and easier. You’ll start to look for these items as you go about your life. You’ll learn to love the small moments that might otherwise get overlooked.

We were born negative, but with practice, we can turn ourselves into positive thinkers.

Positivity isn’t a natural state, it’s a choice.

What is something that made you happy today? Share it with me in the comments!

If you want to keep the positive vibes going, you can check out my last post about how to have fun with your marketing.

Thank you for reading, I hope you found this post helpful.