Everyone wants to feel happy in their job. It makes life far easier and it helps you to focus on what the future might hold in terms of your career progression. Of course, it also means that you can form working friendships with your colleagues and the entire experience becomes far more pleasant than it could otherwise be.
However, maintaining a positive attitude at work can be hard when negative situations arise. Throughout just one working week you’re likely to experience a few challenging problems. For instance, you might have a disagreement with your colleague, you might be given a very tight deadline by a manager, or you might have to deal with a disgruntled client. These can all cause someone to feel a little negative about their working situation, even if only for a short amount of time.
But, you can overcome these challenges and avoid feeling dragged down by them if you learn how to turn negative thoughts into positive ones. A good way to do that is to use reframing.
Reframing is a popular cognitive behavioural therapy technique which involves taking a negative thought and replacing it with a positive. You then repeat the new thought to help your brain jump to the new thought before the old one.
The problem? Reframing is very effective but it doesn’t take hold overnight. It’s something which takes time and if you’re impatient, you might give up before the effects start to show.
Choosing to become a more positive person is a journey. It will benefit you not only in your working life but in your life outside of work too. You’ll notice that you see opportunities rather than problems and social interactions will be much more enjoyable overall. So, is reframing a quick fix? No, but it’s something that is more than worth the effort.
The next time you experience a problem at work, try to maintain that positive stance. Rather than panicking and assuming that everything that day is ruined, look for a positive and focus on it. Ignore all the other negative thoughts that start to swirl in your mind and firmly focus on the silver lining. You’ll notice that, with effort and time, your brain will do this automatically and you won’t have to try so hard.