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