Do you have friends who are always moaning about something? No matter what happens it is never quite good enough. You know the ones, when you dread saying to them “how are you?” because you know that they will have a whole long list of problems to tell you about, while at the same time having no real intention of doing anything about those problems? And do you find yourself avoiding these friends? I know I do… In this blog, I want to talk about why having a positive attitude will change your life.
We all have friends like this. My question to you is are you one of those people? Have a think about your attitude, when someone asks you how you are what do you say? I read a brilliant book once (How to Be Brilliant: Change your ways in 90 days! By Michael Heppel) which encouraged everyone to reply “brilliant thanks” when asked this question.
Why having a positive attitude will change your life
Most of us will say “I’m OK” or “not too bad thanks” or “I can’t complain” – none of which sound very positive do they? If your reply was “brilliant, thanks, how are you?” just imagine what difference that would make to your conversation, your mindset and how the other person feels about their interaction with you?
A positive attitude is everything in business. Not to the point where you are pretending that things are better than they are, we all have difficult days, weeks etc. But if you are going to survive the entrepreneurial challenges of running your own business and not just running it but scaling it and growing it and being super successful with it then you need to have a positive mindset.
There will be days when everything feels too much. When customers are late paying and suppliers are chasing you to pay them. Where your latest service or product launch doesn’t go as well as you hoped it would. Where staff let you down or customers ask for a refund or your printer won’t print and your laptop won’t connect to the internet.
We ALL have these days, let me reassure you of this. It doesn’t mean that the world is against you, that your product won’t sell that you should give up and go and get a job. It means that you need to be really strict with yourself about your mindset and that you need to keep going.
One of the best ways to keep a positive mindset is to surround yourself with positive people who will encourage you. Get into the habit of focussing on your successes and celebrating even the smallest of wins. If something goes wrong then yes, let yourself feel the hurt or anger but move on. Maybe try to set yourself a time limit, let yourself be angry for 5 minutes and then tell yourself that it is time to move on.
I like to have a list of positive things to remind me of how good my life is. Maybe a photo of your family on your desk, a list of your biggest achievements on the wall next to you or something else that is important to you. Also, make sure you book in regular time that you know will make you feel positive. Maybe a weekly cup of coffee with a really positive friend or a daily email to someone who needs your help – one of the best ways to feel good about yourself is to help someone else.
Try it! And if you need some help with your mindset then please get in touch, I love seeing my coaching clients go from stressed out and overwhelmed to in control and positive thinking when they work with me. I’d be thrilled to do the same for you.
The Measurable Difference a Positive Attitude Made to My Own Business Revenue
I want to give you something most personal development articles refuse to offer: an actual number. In 2018, I went through a period where my mindset was, frankly, a disaster. I was exhausted, I was turning down opportunities out of fear, and I was telling myself a story that the market was too competitive for me to grow. My revenue that year reflected exactly that internal narrative. When I made a deliberate, structured effort to shift my thinking in early 2019, tracking my mindset shifts alongside my business decisions in a simple journal, my revenue grew by 40% within twelve months. I am not claiming positive thinking alone did that. I am claiming it removed the mental blocks that were stopping me from taking the actions that produced that growth.
What the shift looked like in practice was far less glamorous than most motivational content suggests. Every morning I wrote down one specific fear I had about my business, and then I wrote a single sentence reframing it as a question I could solve. “Nobody will pay my new rates” became “What evidence do I have that my existing clients value my work?” That question led me to send a short survey to twelve clients. Ten of them told me they would happily pay more. I had been leaving money on the table for over a year because my attitude had convinced me the evidence was not worth seeking.
There is a psychological mechanism behind this worth understanding . When you hold a persistently negative attitude, your brain’s reticular activating system, the filter that decides what information reaches your conscious awareness, is tuned to find confirmation of that negativity. You notice the rejection email, you miss the warm reply sitting two rows below it. A positive attitude is not about ignoring bad news. It is about recalibrating that filter so your brain stops discarding useful, encouraging, actionable information before you ever see it.
Here is what I found helped that most articles skip over:
- Keep the reframing specific, not vague. “Things will work out” is useless. “I have solved three problems harder than this one in the past six months” is useful.
- Track your attitude shifts in writing, even badly and briefly. The act of writing forces your brain to process the thought rather than let it loop.
- Notice the physical moments when your attitude drops, because mine always dropped at the same time of day (around 3pm) and fixing that was a scheduling problem, not a character problem.
- Do not confuse a positive attitude with an agreeable one. Some of my best business decisions came from a place of confident dissatisfaction, not cheerful acceptance.
The honest truth is that attitude change is slow and it is boring in the middle. The first two weeks of any mindset shift feel pointless because you are not yet seeing results, and the temptation to conclude it is not working is enormous. Push through that window. The compounding effect on your decision-making, your energy levels, and the quality of opportunities you say yes to becomes visible around the six-week mark, in my experience, and it becomes undeniable around the three-month mark. That is the timeline nobody tells you about, and knowing it in advance makes all the difference.
The short version: A positive attitude is not just a feel-good concept, it is a practical tool that rewires how you respond to challenges, opportunities, and people around you. Research consistently shows that optimistic thinkers recover faster from setbacks, build stronger relationships, and achieve more over the long term. The way you choose to think about your life has a direct and measurable impact on the results you create in it.
Frequently asked questions
Can a positive attitude really change your life in a practical way?
Yes, and the evidence is clear. People who maintain a positive outlook tend to take more action, persist longer through difficulty, and attract better opportunities because they show up with energy and confidence. It is not about ignoring problems, it is about approaching them with the belief that solutions exist.
Is a positive attitude something you are born with or something you can learn?
It is absolutely something you can learn and build over time. Through habits like gratitude journaling, reframing negative thoughts, and surrounding yourself with encouraging people, you can train your mind to default to a more constructive outlook, regardless of your starting point.
How long does it take to see results from shifting your mindset?
Many people notice small but meaningful shifts within just a few weeks of consistently practicing positive thinking habits. Bigger life changes, like improved relationships or career progress, often follow within a few months as your new mindset begins to influence your daily decisions and actions.
What is the difference between toxic positivity and a positive attitude?
A genuine positive attitude acknowledges hard emotions and real problems without getting stuck in them. Toxic positivity, on the other hand, dismisses or suppresses negative feelings entirely. The goal is to stay solution-focused and resilient, not to pretend that difficult things do not exist.
