Stop negative thinking

See the positive side, the potential, and make an effort.
                                                                   ~Dalai Lama





1. Do Your ABCs

When you experience negative moments in your chosen competition or adventure, I recommend you take two actions. The first action to follow is what I call the ABCs: accept, breathe, concentrate.

  • Accept: Simply acknowledge the negative thoughts you’re having. The more you fear them, fight them, or try to avoid them, the stronger their voices will become. There's an old adage that you can't effectively deal with a problem until you accept you have one. It rings very true in this context. Remember, accept the negative moments because in doing so they provide you with the opportunity to take action to reach a new high

  • Breathe: If you’ve ever seen the classic 1980s underdog karate movie The Karate Kid 2, you may recall a quotation from the omniscient Mr. Miyagi about breathing: “When you feel life out of focus, always return to basic of life. Breathing. No breath, no life.”
  • Concentrate: Now is the time to concentrate strongly on the why that is driving you to complete your particular challenge, competition, or adventure. The best method to define the why is to use motivational themes, as I outlined previously. (You can learn even more about the mechanics behind motivational themes here.)

2. Embrace Meditation:

The basis purpose of meditation is to relax your mind and body, and allow positivity into your life. For the purpose of this exercise I suggest simply finding a quiet place that is free of distractions and focusing on your breathing. Clear your mind of all thoughts and allow your body to relax.Once you feel relaxed and your mind is clear begin to think about positive things that make you feel good.

3. Surround yourself with positive people:

I called a friend who I knew could give me constructive yet loving feedback. When you’re stuck in a negative spiral, talk to people who can put things into perspective and won’t feed your negative thinking.

4. Keep Moving Forward

What I believe is the most powerful action of all, is to just keep moving forward - always. Forward momentum is an incredibly powerful thing. While the forward steps you take may be small, they steadily add up to a sum much greater than their parts.