Maintaining a positive attitude is critical when you want to achieve anything… or just to improve the quality of your life. Most success literature will talk about the power of positive thinking and how important it is. It’s often easier said than done.

In this article, you’ll find 11 tips for maintaining your positive attitude no matter what’s going on in your life.

1. You Determine Your Reality

It’s important to realize that you determine your reality by the way you react to the outside world. When something happens, you get to choose whether it’s a positive or negative experience and react accordingly. Losing your job might be a disaster or it might be the opportunity for bigger and brighter things… you choose what it will mean to you.

2. Start Your Day Strong

Most of the population have to drag themselves out of bed and this sets a negative frame for their entire day. Positive people create a morning ritual that reinforces how great life is and how happy they are to be alive.

I used to wake up and immediately turn on Bon Jovi’s “It’s My Life“ to get me into state. Now I start my day by reading or listening to something positive. Whether you have 1 minute, 15 minutes or an hour to dedicate to your ritual, you can start the day in whatever state you prefer.

3. Exercise Is the Natural Feel-Good Drug

Exercise is a great way to maintain a good attitude because of all the positive chemicals it releases into the blood stream. I used to exercise in the morning (after Bon Jovi) and this is often recommended as a powerful way to start the day. Now, I exercise by doing activities I love (kung fu and dancing) most evenings but even a walk around the block with inspiring audio will help.

4. Use Books, Audio and Videos to Overload Your Brain with Positivity

There are millions of amazing books, podcasts and videos for you to absorb from people who are inspiring and living the life of their dreams. Tap into their positive emotions and their experience by learning how they think and what they do to create the lives they want.

You can do this in the morning or while exercising, eating, commuting, cooking, cleaning… there’s always time for positivity.

5. Your Language Shapes Your Thoughts

Little changes in your language can change the way you think and how you act. Whenever someone greets you and asks how you’re doing, do you answer with “fine” or “not too bad?” Think about just what this language is communicating to others… and yourself.

I always answer with “great,” “fantastic,” or “amazing.” Not only does this remind me that life really is great but, it usually surprises and lifts the state of the person I’m talking to as well.

6. Hang out with Positive People

It is often said that you will have a similar level of health, income and lifestyle as the 5 people you spend the most time with: The Hidden Power of Every Single Person Around You

So if you want to be fit, then start to hang out with fit people. Want to start a business? Then hang out with business owners. And if you want to be positive, make sure you’re hanging out with positive people.

7. Show Your Appreciation for Others

By appreciating others for a job well done, their outfit or their smile, you start to cause a positive chain reaction.

Don’t you feel great when you receive a compliment from someone else? Well, if you want to receive more, then start giving them out and watch what happens to the people around you.

8. Garbage In, Garbage Out

This is an expression from programming where the result is only as good as the input. So if you’re feeding yourself with negativity all day long, then it’s pretty obvious you’re going to be feeling negative as well.

A lot of the media including news and TV thrive on negativity. So put yourself on a negativity diet (including people) and watch how much easier it is to maintain your positive attitude.

9. Stop Negative Thoughts in Their Tracks

It’s hard to be a constantly positive person and negative thoughts are going to bubble up from time to time. These will be more frequent in the beginning but, decrease as you practice the tips we’re talking about. When you start to notice negative thoughts, you can use a pattern interrupt to stop them in their tracks.

The idea is to interrupt your current thought pattern and change your state. My most successful one is The Smurfs theme song. Whenever I start to feel frustrated, sad or angry I simply start humming the tune and pretty soon a big silly smile comes over my face.

10. Live with Gratitude

So many positive things happen during our day and we often ignore them while letting one negative comment or event ruin our mood. It can help to keep a gratitude journal where you jot down things you are grateful for each night or during the day.

If you’re reading this, then you probably live with a roof over your head and food in your belly which is a daily struggle for most of the world… so it should be easy to find tons of things you’re grateful for.

11. Recharge Your Batteries

A key to maintaining your positive attitude is taking the time to recharge your batteries. This might mean taking a few hours on the weekend to read a positive book or taking a few weeks for a holiday.

If you’re not in the position to travel, you can take a staycation, or have a “home holiday” where you simply switch off from the outside world and spend time doing things you love.

Final Thoughts

You now have 11 tips for maintaining your positive attitude but they are no use to you unless you implement them into your life.

Start small. Pick the easiest tip or the one that you really love and introduce it into your life starting right now. Then over time, start implementing the other tips and watch your positivity soar.