I’m Dr. Hassan, a Board-Certified Physiatrist and Independent Practice Owner. I help physiatrists start and grow their own profitable practices so they can achieve financial independence and live without limits.
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On your path to a profitable practice, a positive mindset and positivity is absolutely paramount.
Pondering positivity
How you face life each day largely determines how you feel about your day. If you have a positive approach to life and to yourself, even your most challenging days will feel tolerable. Thinking positively is the key to living a satisfying, fulfilled life.
Mitchell Moore is believed to have once said, “Attitude is everything.” In other words, how you approach your day or a situation determines how that day or situation will go. Thinking positively is a relatively simple personal rule to remember. However, putting it into practice in your daily life can be more challenging.
Peter McWilliams thought so on positivity: “The road to positivity is strewn with the abandoned vehicles of the faint hearted.” McWilliams made this astute observation about the challenges of thinking positively. To translate this idea into everyday English: To be positive, you must persevere.
Norman Vincent Peale and the power of positive thinking
Norman Vincent Peale, the author of the The Power of Positive Thinking, formulated several fascinating thoughts about approaching life in a positive way. He said, “We tend to give what we expect.” One interpretation of the saying is that whatever we expect or believe will occur will indeed come to pass.
So if you believe that you’ll do well on a work project, you will. If you expect not to do well, then you likely won’t. Dr. Peale also said, “Change your thoughts and you change your world.” The beauty of this statement is that it gives incredible hope. The implication is that if you take hold of your thoughts, you can thank your way into success. Positivity rules again!
Positivity: Illustration and discussion
Consistently thinking positive can be challenging. Maybe your self-confidence isn’t as strong as it could be. If this is the case, you may need to take a leap of faith to think positively. Perhaps you ponder: “But what if I make a fool of myself, or maybe my coworkers are smarter than I am.”
Consider this illustration: You’re up for a promotion at work. How will you think about the situation? What do you believe about yourself as it relates to the possibility of receiving the promotion? Here are three ways to approach this matter:
1. Assume you won’t be selected for the job. After all, you didn’t get straight A’s in school and the new vice president hardly ever speaks to you, so you think you won’t be chosen.
2. Decide you don’t care either way. Whether you get the promotion or not isn’t important. It doesn’t matter. This way of thinking demonstrates the easy way out. You don’t have to put any emotional energy into something when you don’t care.
3. Dare to think you’ll be selected to receive the promotion. You’ll believe you’re smart enough to be chosen. You know that you work hard, so others probably see that you’re a good candidate. So you decide to think positively. How can you come out of this situation feeling fine no matter what happens?
Let’s consider each approach to the possible promotion.
Most likely if you respond like a number one and don’t receive the promotion, you won’t feel very positive. After all, not getting a promotion will now serve as confirmation of what you believe about yourself that you won’t be successful. However, if you do get the promotion, you may believe you don’t deserve it, because in a negative approach you may feel unhappy even if you get what you want.
If you react as in number two, then you don’t care either way. You’ve convinced yourself that nothing is important enough to invest in it. Your life goes on the same. When you don’t care about something, the end result is irrelevant. However, if the end result truly doesn’t matter, you may not particularly enjoy the promotion if you do get it. You’ve deprived yourself of joy by completely detaching from the situation.
If you react like number three, you go into the situation feeling hopeful, exciting, and energized. If you are chosen, you will be reinforced for your positive thinking and re-energized for the work ahead of you. Even if you aren’t selected, you’ll only experience brief disappointment. After the short let down, you’ll remind yourself that with your intelligence and perseverance, something good will soon come along. You simply can’t lose by approaching life’s events with positive thinking.
Pondering positivity is worth your time. When you aren’t sure about how to think about how to think about a situation, remember Norman Vincent Peele’s quotes about approaching life in a positive way. Consider Peter McWilliams point and Michael Moore’s famous quote. Attitude truly is everything. With enough positivity, you can change your life.
I am Dr. Hassan, Board-Certified Physiatrist and Independent Practice Owner. I help physiatrists start and grow their own independent practice so that they can achieve financial independence and live without limits. Please go to businessofrehab.com/guide to pick up the free guide to help you determine the best business entity for your practice.
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Sometimes we need support when it comes to staying positive, especially in our physiatry practice. Check out our blog here on how a family support system can help you stay positive and reach success.
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