Why All That Negativity Is Killing Your Chances Of Success

By Joel on June 5, 2012

Motivational Speaker Les Brown once said, that 80% of self talk is negative. Everything from business, love, school, or even a simple hobby can become affected by the negativity that we allow to brew within ourselves. Getting rid of this negative self talk is often the only thing that holds us back from seeing the success and happiness that we truly deserve in life.

If any portion of this rings true inside of you, then lets take a closer look at a few ways to minimize, if not eliminate negativity from our lives.

Is your mind causing you to fall behind?

In order to be successful, one of the first things that we must learn to do is to control our minds. Our mind is the central place from which we plan and execute all the necessary actions for success. What this means is that you should be paying attention to the thoughts that occupy your mind at all times, or as much as you can. Doing so will allow you to realize what is happening in your head as well as what triggers your negativity. Negative triggers can be very difficult to spot and may not even be what you’d expect. Even witnessing someone else being successful at something could be enough to trigger our own jealousy, and in effect a cascade of negative thoughts and emotions which feed on each other in a never ending loop. Witnessing these thoughts and triggers are critical, once you see them you’ll be in a better position to do something about it.

Once you’ve identified the negative thought patterns of your mind, its time to change them. This step is not going to be easy, but with time and consistency you will find yourself a happier and more successful person. Meditation can be a great way of accomplishing this, but if you find this too difficult, then refocusing your attention on any physical task will also do the trick. This can be anything from cleaning, exercising, to playing video games. The key here is to pay no attention to the negativity of your mind, and eventually it will fade away.

Whenever you have a negative thought, remember to think of something great that you have achieved or something that you are looking forward to and then compare it to the thought you are thinking right now. In more cases than not, you will find that the positive thought of your achievements or events you are looking forward to will over power your negative thought, leaving the negative thought so minuscule that it won’t be anything to even sweat over.

The sad truth – Your friends may be holding you back more than you realize

Although this next step may seem a bit difficult and harsh, it can be critical to your own success. How many friends do you have that constantly badger you with their problems? These negative emotions and second hand experiences can leave a deep impact on your psyche, and too much of this can cause you to see life from a pessimistic perspective. Even worse is that once these emotions leave their imprint on you they can literally take a life of their own.

This is because our lives are deeply interconnected, and there is no better example than the female “work place” phenomenon. This phenomenon, which has been scientifically documented, is that when women are around each other for long periods of time, their menstruation cycles will often tend to synch and happen at the exact same time every month. If our body’s are intelligent and connected enough to do this, then it only makes sense that our thoughts and emotions would carry the same ‘rub off’ effect. This means that their negativity becomes our negativity, which in turn directly stops us from seeing success in life. If you want to get ahead but feel like something is holding you back, then it may be time to identify these friends and weed them out of your life. Do not worry though, because a happier and more successful you will attract more friends with the same beliefs.

It’s like the old saying, “Birds of a feather, flock together.”

Checkout this Speech by the Motivational Superstar, Les Brown on the importance of ridding yourself of negative people so that you can achieve success more efficiently.

Les Brown – Negative People

Article By Joel Brown | Addicted2Success.com

About The Author: Joel

Joel Brown is the CEO and Founder of Addicted2Success.com. With a long time passion for Entrepreneurship, Self development & Success, Joel started his website with the intention of educating and inspiring likeminded people all over the world to always strive for success no matter what their circumstances. Joel’s passion for what he does shows through the continual growth of Addicted2Success.com's online community. Follow Joel Brown on Twitter

10 Comments

John Wilder

June 5, 2012 at 9:45 pm

Great message and one that we all need to heed

Reply
- Augustine
  
  December 15, 2012 at 10:36 pm
  
  Thank you, certainly helps to keep things in perspective
  
  Reply
Rene bellis

June 6, 2012 at 1:41 pm

I totally agree with negative thoughts overpowering your life. I have been an unwilling participant to negative people that have impacted my own thinking and have also “vented” my problems to my close friends. Sometimes “venting” and sharing our experiences actually lessens the impact of negativity. I am a positive person, but at times am influenced by negativity, especially when it concerns somebody that I love. It’s easier to rid yourself of negative people when they are not close to you, (such as a coworker whom you could avoid). But if those negative people are close family members, it is much more difficult to ignore them and not allow their negativity to influence you. That’s why it is essential to keep your hands busy. By doing things you enjoy, it puts your mind and thoughts in a better place. I’d love anyone’s input on this.

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Valerie V.

June 8, 2012 at 2:14 am

Awesome!!! I love the example you used when referring to women in the work place. That is one of the oddest “unexplainable” – but truest facts of our bodies. The connection you made was excellent! LOVE this site!!!!
~VV

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Mike

June 12, 2012 at 1:00 am

Great post. Your creativity is on point once again. The sad part is our friends affect us a lot. It happens in the subconsciously so it’s hard to recognize. It’s VERY important to be around people that are striving for where we want to go.

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jean

June 23, 2012 at 1:47 am

great!

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Paul Duffy

June 27, 2012 at 2:16 am

The video is truley remarkable anyone who reads this article should watch the video its so true how many times a day do you really be negative towards your self it would be scary if we could count how many times each day.

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Alexander Hoff

October 3, 2012 at 8:49 pm

Awesome post!

And thank you so much for introducing me to that guy(Les Brown). He seems amazing .

Reply
Nipho

November 21, 2012 at 5:24 pm

Amazing amazing amazing! Thank you this helped me a lot.

Reply
Gregory Eddy (@Electronsquared)

May 14, 2013 at 9:01 pm

This man is real. I meet him in person.

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