A positive mind produces positive action which yields positive results. It’s basic math. A positive plus a positive equals a positive.

However, every life has negative moments and every person has negative thoughts throughout the day. When we choose to engage with these negative thoughts in a downcast manner, we apply negatives to our efforts. These negatives in our efforts often result in underperformance. This often causes discouragement and paves the path to loss of momentum.

Here is a list of 3 negative thought habits and how to combat them.

Negative Self Talk

Your brain is programmed to believe the input it receives. Therefore, input coming from yourself is incredibly powerful. Muttering phrases like, “You’re stupid,” or, “You’re such an (expletive),” to yourself is easy to do, but it never, repeat never, produces positive results.

When you fail, focusing on the things that went right or your positive attributes is key to regaining control of perspective. Perspective is everything when facing a difficult circumstance. If you choose a perspective of victory, you can realistically formulate a way to find that victory. Believe in yourself and your results will begin to turn up.

Second Guessing Yourself

When you were a kid, did you ever circle B on a test, change it to A, and then finally land on C? A week later when you got the test back, what happened? Usually, the answer was B! And you were kicking yourself.

Life is like this as well. While it’s important to flush out our options by making sure we have all the information, our gut reactions to scenarios are extremely important. There is a variety of subconscious processing which takes place when observing a situation. Trust your gut and apply the information you have in tandem with your gut response. Make your decision and stick to it to avoid the history test blues in the real world.

Making Excuses

Passing the buck is a fun card game, but the blame game doesn’t play well in relationships or in real-world productivity. Own your mistakes. Own your shortcomings. Admittance is the first step towards making improvements. When you fail, fail forward.

Use it as a propeller towards the goal you fell short of.  If factors outside of your control interfered with your efforts and did cause you to fail, focus on taking positive action over the elements you can control. This is how overcomers are born.

Ultimately, the mental game is the hardest aspect of achieving any goal. Learn to master your mind and you’ll master your life.