The Wonderful Power of Positive Thinking

Positive thinking has a powerful effect on behavior that often goes unnoticed. Not only is it capable of improving performance, but it also boosts positive moods.

People often underestimate the power of positive thinking on behavior. If you know how to take advantage of it, it can help improve your performance.

Throughout the day, people have a lot of thoughts about the things that happen to them. They can be positive or negative, while others aren’t emotionally charged at all. However, those that are emotionally charged have the most potential to influence behaviors.

Although you can’t control everything that happens to you, you do have control over how you assess and deal with situations. It isn’t easy to always think positive, but the pros of doing so still far outweigh the cons. For all these reasons, below, you’ll discover how positive thinking influences performance.

It boosts self-confidence

Positive thinking is a source of self-confidence. You have to make sure to adopt an appropriate thinking style that’ll allow you to address obstacles with courage and determination.

This doesn’t mean putting on a blindfold of empty optimism and only allowing yourself to feel positive emotions. Although negative emotions are uncomfortable and bothersome, they have the same value as positive ones and must be respected and accepted.

When you face unknown situations, thinking about possible opportunities instead of failures can calm you down and help you deal with them in more adaptive ways.

Positive thinking will help you do at least one more rep

During high-intensity training, tiredness and fatigue tell the body to stop. However, these sensations don’t originate due to pain or a physical problem, but due to the demanding effort the person is subjected to.

Positive thinking could help push the body a step beyond the limits of tiredness. When it comes to strength exercises, it allows you to do a few additional reps. In the case of cardiovascular training, such as jogging, it allows you to continue for a few extra feet.

However, you have to be careful and know when your body is asking you to stop due to discomfort or an injury. If it’s due to an injury, you must immediately stop the exercise. In this case, forcing your body to continue is reckless.

It’ll help you stay motivated and not make excuses

You probably aren’t always motivated to train. The comfort of being at home or commitments are perfect excuses to skip a day of exercise.

However, positive thinking can help you find that motivation in difficult times. This ability is known as self-motivation. A study published by the journal ABRA states that it’s essential for the regulation of psychological processes that directly affect sports performance.

You’ll see mistakes in a better light

Making mistakes is very human. Nevertheless, most people are ashamed or afraid of making mistakes. This is because people make too big of a deal of mistakes, although they’re perfectly human and normal.

The power of positive thinking can help you change your perception of mistakes. Instead of considering yourself a failure, mistakes will become sources of information that’ll allow you to do better next time.

In addition, no longer being afraid of making a mistake could reduce their frequency, as you’ll face tasks without fear and a boosted self-confidence.

Let the power of positive thinking sway you

Making the commitment to thinking more positively can be the start of a big personal change. As we mentioned at the beginning of this article, since we have a lot of thoughts per day, it’s normal for some negative ones to arise. And this isn’t necessarily bad. Simply make sure not to dwell on these thoughts.

Lastly, emotions, thoughts, and behaviors are interrelated. This means that having more positive thoughts will translate into more positive emotions and adaptive behaviors.