Turn Negative Thoughts Into Positive Actions in Five Steps

Do you have a Negative Nancy (NN) or Toxic Tim (TT) that you’re keeping longer than you should? Would you let them go if you weren’t so short staffed? One Negative Nancy or Toxic Tim infiltrates the whole company, and their attitude spreads throughout, affecting everyone.

During this activity, you can expect to hear laughter from your group because they’re moving for most of them, which shows that negative thinking arises without you consciously knowing. You have a lot more negative thoughts than you believe.

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Here’s a five-step process to help you change your thoughts to invoke different actions, behaviors, and results, and develop a positive work environment.

If you’re like most people, you think the same way you’ve always thought, resulting in the same behaviors, actions, and results. If you want to change relationships, communication, interactions, and your confidence, you must first change how you think. Once you change that, then everything else will change as well.

Most people think they are positive and optimistic—yet negativity shows, and they don’t even recognize it. In fact, 90% of your thoughts are repetitive. So, all the negative thoughts keep getting repeated, affecting how you show up, speak out, lead, and live.

Think of it like this: You attend a meeting that NN was in. When you leave, you approach Positive Polly and share with her, “It’s so frustrating dealing with NN. Why is she still here? All we do is constantly listen to her babble and unhappiness.”

Once you’ve identified your negative thoughts, it’s important to write them down. Something happens in your brain when you write things down. They tend to become real, and you remember them more. So, when you write down your negative thoughts, you become more mindful when they arise. Follow the rest of the process with just one of your negative thoughts. Once you have mastered one, work on another (don’t overwhelm yourself or burn out on doing too many at once).

Recognize your thoughts. There’s an exercise to help you specifically identify your negative thoughts. It’s called the stand up/sit down exercise. This is a great exercise to do as a team. Have someone read a set of statements. For every statement you agree with, you will move your body. Everyone starts in a stand-up position.

Your thoughts are the fundamental foundation of everything you do and don’t do, yet often you don’t consider them. When was the last time you thought about what you thought about?

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Management

Recognizing negative thought patterns before they become habit

5. Action

The more you work through this process, the more positive thoughts you’ll have. You’ll soon recognize negative thoughts in others and can help them master their own mindset. You’ll become the Positive Polly and help develop a positive work environment that no one wants to leave.

What triggers your negative thinking? Triggers can be a place, situation, mood, experience, or thing. If you’ve ever had a conversation with someone and walked away saying to yourself, “Why do I even bother?” then you also know a trigger can be a person. And many times, it is a person. Write down all your triggers. Once you’re aware of them, you can be on the lookout for them. When they come up, as they will, you’ll be prepared to block the negative thoughts that follow.

According to research from Fred Luskin of Stanford University, you have 60,000 thoughts a day, and 80% of them are negative. These come in the form of doubt, worry, and stress, and are linked to poor attitudes, declining engagement, and poor performance.

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2. Write it

For example, if the first statement is, “If you’ve ever thought you’re not smart enough,” and you agree, you’ll sit down. If you disagree with the statement, you’ll remain as you were. If the next statement is, “If you’ve ever thought you don’t have enough time,” and you agree, you’ll move (either stand up or sit down, depending on what you did for the first statement). This repeats for every statement read (there should be about 15 statements read).

4. Reframe

Published: Wednesday, January 31, 2024 – 12:02

According to research from Fred Luskin of Stanford University, you have 60,000 thoughts a day, and 80% of them are negative. Image credit: Nik on Unsplash

Once you have your reframing options, pick one to take action on. Nothing changes until you act on it. Small actions make a huge difference. If you want to know the best leadership book to read, you may initially think you don’t know any. But your brain can solve that dilemma. It’ll reply with ideas to look up leadership books on Google, put a post on Facebook asking your friends for their recommendations, or look up Amazon book reviews. Then it’s time to decide which action you’ll take (i.e., choose a book and order it). Small, consistent actions are key to eradicating negative thinking.

3. Triggers

1. Identify

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Before you know it you become a Negative Nancy, and Positive Polly sees the effect the original NN has had on you and the team. It only takes one person thinking negatively to bring down the whole environment, culture, and team. In order to help you, Positive Polly shares the following.

List all the ways to reframe the negative thought. There are two ways to do this reframing. First, you can say the opposite of the negative statement. Instead of staying, “I’m not a good enough leader,” you can say, “I’m an awesome leader.” The second way is to ask questions. For instance, “What courses do I need to take to become a better leader,” “What leadership book should I read to improve my leadership skills?” or, “Who can mentor me into being a better leader?” Your brain is constantly analyzing. If you say you’re not a good enough leader, your brain will validate it with all the ways that it’s true. If you say you’re an awesome leader, your brain will validate it with all the ways that it’s true. So, listening to the positive responses of your brain will make all the difference in your work and life.