“you can, you should, and if you’re brave enough to start, you will.” Stephen King

People often refer to positive thinkers as the people who wear “rose-coloured glasses” or as people who see a glass as “half-full” versus half-empty. Positive thinkers do have a different approach to life than negative thinkers.

Yes, bad things happen in life.

Positive thinkers are not ignoring life circumstances. They do attempt to explore, learn and understand the life events.

Positive thinkers are:

Open to Change and Opportunity. They are open and willing to trying new things, developing new skills, and gaining new knowledge. They look for the possibilities in new situations or in times of uncertainty. Negative thinkers shut down opportunities out of fear. They are not willing to learn and grow. They are often happy with the status quo even if they do complain about it. They do not want to change.

Better Decision Makers. Positive thinkers look for the strengths, opportunities, and best possible outcomes and strive to meet the outcomes they desire. They are open to trying new things and do not close themselves off from opportunities as negative thinkers do.

Solution-focused. Positive thinkers do not dwell on problems but rather focus on positive solutions. They have the ability to see look at the big picture and brainstorm ways to overcome any challenges that may arise. Negative thinkers focus only on the problem and see change as impossible.

More Resilient. They do not unravel easily. They are in tune with their emotions and see setbacks as a chance to stop, breathe, and re-focus – a set up for success. Negative thinkers see situations as permanent and get stressed out. They tend to over-react to situations and do not see the impact of their outbursts or behavior on others.

Resourceful. When they do not know an answer to a question, they will seek out the information or refer to someone who does have this information. They often have a “quitting is not an option” attitude. Negative thinkers are not willing to look for new ways of doing things because they think everything is going to fail anyway or they say “what’s the point?”

Grateful. Positive thinkers enjoy the little things life has to offer. They look for and are grateful for the positive things in their life. Things as simple as being able to: take a breath, for there are others in the world struggling to breathe; hear the sound of music, for there are many who cannot enjoy someone singing off key; or to smell the aroma of mom’s baked apple pie from the kitchen, for there are others who cannot smell. Negative thinkers complain and blame others for their life circumstances.

Positive thinkers also energize relationships and social interactions. You cannot help but want to be around them. They make you feel good about yourself and life in general. In the workplace, these are people you want on your team. These are people who get things done. They are productive and they are high performers. Negative thinkers are just the opposite.

The best thing about thinking is that you can choose to be a positive thinker or you can choose to be a negative thinker. Making the shift can make you stand out of the crowd. You can get promoted, develop stronger relationships, and be given opportunities a negative thinker would not get. Positive thinkers – DO what negative thinkers are not willing to DO.