Positivity for Productivity

Productivity through positivity is the key to success. Building positive thoughts and actions will help increase productivity in life. 

“Change your thoughts and you change the world”

– Norman Vincent Peale 

Most of the people feel positivity means just telling a few statements in a well-structured manner and repeating it several times a day, will keep them happy. This is true to a certain extent, but just by doing this you thinking will become positive, but not productive. So how to become both positive and productive?

 

Before understanding positivity, it’s essential to understand what is negativity. Negativity is a pessimistic attitude that keeps telling worst is yet to come and you are on the verge of failure. The feeling of every action taken can be speculative and could contribute to a loss. Negativity creates insecurity and uncertainty. Like the feeling of someone could attack you while walking on an empty street is more due to the insecurity within.

Most of the statements people make with “don’t”, “isn’t”, “doesn’t”, etc. are mostly negative. This talks more about what should not be done, where “not” is the most negative word. Generally, when instructions are provided there are “Dos” and “Don’ts” list. This is the most common negative approach when there is a “Do’s” list, simple and clear, what is the need for don’ts. Just follow the Dos and things should be fine, the rest are don’ts anyways.

Negativity is something that is deep routed because of a set of inner and outer components. As children, till the age of 6, they are only observers and whatever they take note and learn, they write it in the rule book of their mind. This rule book is referred to for every decision the kid makes even as adults. Some rules in this book are written by parents and a few by society. Examples of such rules are, “you need to work hard to lead a good life”, “if you steal you will be punished”, “study hard, else you will fail”, etc. Because of these rules most people end up working very hard in life, their rule book will never allow them to work smart, at least till they rewire their mind. It is also true that from childhood, kids are thought about what they should not be doing, more than what they should be doing. Teaching kids, on what they should be doing more than what they should not be, would create wonders for their future.

The impact of negativity is very hard, it requires some efforts to come out of it and set a strong positive (Do’s) statement to every negative statement. The good news is, this is manageable with some practice and dedication.

 

It’s the change in the thinking process and restructuring the way we think, the need of the hour.

Now let's understand what positivity means. Positivity means the practice of being optimistic by both attitude and actions. As noted earlier, it’s about both thoughts and actions. If there are only positive thoughts and no action, the outcome will not be effective. It is the way we work with the conscious & subconscious minds and the way we look and perceive things.

The world we are living in now is very competitive because of which the attitudes are changing. People are getting more aggressive by the day, with their approach. The impact of all this is, lot more negativity and the trust is going down among people. This is also leading to a bunch of conflicts and restlessness in people.

And then what needs to be done to improve or alter our thinking to positive thinking? Before we consider any steps around changing our thoughts, the source of these thoughts should be stopped…

First stop the source:

The first and most important is to determine the root of negativity. A few sources of negativity are NEWS, Social media, gossips, mega serials, etc. The focus should be to close as many doors as possible to negativity.

What's in our news these days? hatred, killings, mudslinging and most of it is bad news, which projects that the world is on the edge. Is this really true? If you look around, your world is still the same or sometimes more beautiful. We have those friends who are ready to die for us, a healthy neighborhood and a beautiful cosmos. Old age news roundup of 5 to 10 mins was the best, simple update of what’s happening around you.

Coming to Social media, it’s an addiction. Due to this addiction, people tend to spend a lot more time on social media than required, looking at updates from others. Let’s take an example of FB, once a photo is posted, based on the number of ‘likes’ we decide our self-worth. What if there are lesser ‘likes’ than what was expected, it’s a disaster and you get into a negative mindset. Or everyday you look at it to find out how many people liked it, first thing in the morning and the last thing in the day. And the irony is, everyone other than you looks happy on FB. Is this true, not in most of the instances. On social media there is one more evil called fake news, one should be very deliberate and cautious about its wickedness. People should avoid news on social media at any cost, the study says more than 90% of the news on social media is fake.

Serials, especially soap operas are like slow poison for the brain and mind. They are filled with negativity, the villains are glorified. People get so involved at times, they feel it's happening in their lives. Precious time is spent on thinking on these storylines. The worst is, the feeling of it could materialize in their lives is the biggest “negative thought”. Pursuing the story for years, which goes nowhere is senseless.

The advice is to reduce it or simply come out of this vicious circle by stopping it. Because so much time is spent on these kinds of stuff in a day, there is always a feeling that there is not enough time for a lot of important things. Due to this deficiency in time, people get into multi-tasking which will produce even more stress on the system. Moreover, its neither helping build a happy spirit, nor it's increasing your knowledge. This is just increasing the stress points and causing lifestyle diseases.

Eight practices for increasing productivity;

1)     Reading:

 Cultivate the habit of reading, read whatever you like, novel, fiction, science, self-help, etc. Building a habit is very important. There are a lot of benefits of reading, it helps in stress reduction, memory improvement, increased focus & concentration, increasing the knowledge to name a few.

2)    Visualisation:

Everyone is good at dreaming, but there is a difference between dreaming and visualisation. Dreams, there is no control, however, visualisation is guided dreaming. Reading books will enhance your visualisation skills and it plays a very important role in life. 
Everyday practicing visualizing for 5 mins in the morning and before you go to bed, this will reduce the stress levels. It will also help in planning and execution. Visualise how the day should be along with a goal to achieve in the morning. And end the day with visualizing how the day was and what better can be done tomorrow. You can achieve all the goals through this guided dreaming.

3)    Meditation:

Tell me a person who doesn’t know the benefits of meditation, but how many really follow this. Meditation is one of the best ways to reduce stress and anxiety. Here the idea is not to spend hours doing meditation, 5 mins at the beginning of the day can do wonders. Meditation helps in focus and concentration, which will further help in being creative. Meditation also helps in better visualisation. There is no specific way to do the meditation, it can just be sitting in a relaxed position and observe your breathing. Refer to YouTube and choose the one which suits you.

4)    Exercising:

Daily exercising is a must for every human being. This helps stimulate the growth of new cells in our brain, which means you look younger. New cells help in improved memory and reduction of stress. Exercise is a magical pill for the complete body and especially our brain. Exercising increases the dopamine in the blood. The benefits of increased dopamine in the blood are a surge in creativity, energy all through the day and more productive. Make a habit of at least 30 mins of exercise every day, which will help you feel better and productive.

5)    Positive hour:

Starting today spend one hour in a day as a positive hour, where only positive thoughts flow in. It can be any point in the day, could be while at the office, at home or while exercising. At this hour only think positive about yourself, people you meet (could be your boss, spouse, drive or anyone), things you notice. The hour should be filled with only positive thoughts. It could be challenging initially, but a conscious effort will help develop this habit. To start with, it will be a positive hour, but later it will spread all through your day.

6)    Replace your negative thought:

Put a conscious effort to remove the negative thoughts from the mind. Only if negative thoughts are removed, there is space for new fresh positive thoughts. The simple way to do this is to list out the negative thought, the major ones, to begin with, release the thought and replace that thought with a positive thought. For example, if the thought is “I can’t do it”, just replace it with “I can do it with little extra efforts”. Do this with every negative thought which comes to the mind. Practicing this for 21 days will help build a habit and once it’s a habit it for a lifetime.

7)    Find Your Passion:

Meditation and deep thinking could help find your passion. First, find your passion, then spend time pursuing your passion. This will keep you energised as we are doing things we love. Like in my case, writing these blogs and spreading positivity.

8)   Affirmations:

Practice affirmations everyday, which will keep you energised. Affirmations are a set of well-constructed positive statements. Repeating it over and over again in a day will help in productivity and a healthier mind. Write your own affirmation or there are a lot of resources available on the web to help you initially.

The practices you like should be followed for 21 days till it becomes a habit. Once it’s a habit, as noted earlier, it will just happen through the subconscious mind. All it needs is the conscious effort to start and make it a habit. See the change in yourself once you start practicing these and you will also see the increase in productivity. This is no rocket science, and most of us know this, focus and effort are the only things missing.

Do try this for a month and let me know your feedback in the comments section. Thank you for taking the time to read my blog and for taking the first step towards productivity.