Using positivity to give you an edge in business

Working hard and not getting ahead. It all comes tumbling down when you think things will take off. The odds are stacked against you. And that smart-alec one is getting all the success “just because.”

But how can you use positivity to get ahead of the negative nancy? Positivity is much broader than saying something is “nice” or “cool” or a business tool for success.

Use this secret blog to help your small business succeed. Positive words, in the right amounts, can prove significant for your online presence. Read to learn more!

Self-validation

When you fall into the trap of seeking validation from others, you’re setting yourself up to feel like a failure. Because at the end of the day, whether it’s a compliment about your outfit, your cooking, or your writing, it is only a compliment. It doesn’t reflect who you are. It’s just someone’s opinion.

The more time you spend worrying about what other people think of you and your abilities, the less time you have to focus on your thoughts and feelings. And that can be dangerous for someone with high self-esteem and aspirations. If you’re constantly worried about what others think about you, that’s not time well spent. It’s time better spent caring for yourself and working towards achieving your goals.

If someone gives a compliment that makes you feel good, then, by all means, accept it graciously and say thank you. But don’t let that one compliment define how you think about yourself or how much you believe in yourself when it comes to other things. You know yourself best, and there is no need to put yourself down by considering that something someone said once defines who YOU are as a person or what YOU’RE capable of achieving.

Celebrate your skills

The meaning of celebrating your strengths often gets overlooked. It’s important to remember that it’s not just about patting yourself on the back for what you already know. It’s about finding joy in the things you’ve accomplished and then using that as a catalyst for pushing further in new directions. If you’re like many people, there are areas of your life where you feel stuck in a rut. Maybe you need to be happier with how much money you make or how effective you are at working with others. These feelings can lead to frustration and even depression if they go unaddressed. But what if instead of focusing on how stuck you feel, you think about something positive? What was it that allowed you to get up to this point? What were some of the struggles that led to your growth? How did you learn and grow from those experiences? Celebrate them! This is an opportunity to think about what made you successful or at least able to handle whatever it is that’s causing dissatisfaction in your work.

Although we can never get back the time we’ve already spent, it’s possible to learn from our mistakes and move forward. We can adapt our behavior moving forward and use our past experiences as a guide for better decision-making in the future.

Focus on what makes your business unique

Comparing your business to others can be a helpful tool when starting out, especially if you’re in an industry with fierce competition. But once you grow and develop your qualities and characteristics, it’s time to set yourself apart from your competitors.

Everyone knows that comparison can be a healthy exercise—it helps us put our accomplishments into perspective and motivates us to strive towards being better. But when you compare yourself too much or too often (or in the wrong ways), it can backfire. It can prevent you from developing your path or vision and cause you to lose sight of the things that make your business unique and special.

Look at negative situations from a new angle.

No one likes to be told that they did something wrong. It’s a harsh dose of reality and can crush our confidence when trying so hard to do well. But we should still pay attention to negative feedback when it comes our way. It’s important to use negative feedback as a way to grow and learn—rather than letting it become another distraction we feel we must try to avoid.

When you hear something negative about your work, whether in the form of a complaint or a simple observation, try to approach it as an opportunity to learn how to improve. If you need to do something differently, try fixing it. If a problem seems too difficult or too big to take on right now, create a plan for tackling it and making the necessary changes. Re-evaluate your approach. Think about whether you can correct this with some adjustment or specific action—or if you need more time and practice.

Listen to helpful advice.

Just because you are confident about your abilities doesn’t mean that everyone else shares that confidence. We all know someone who has an air of certainty about them and can tackle life’s most challenging obstacles with aplomb. But people like this didn’t just wake up one morning like that. Their attitude was built, just as our bodies are built, through constant positive reinforcement from outside sources. This is why it’s essential to surround yourself with people who value the same things you do, such as hard work, honesty, and integrity.

As much as we might like to think that our friends will be there for us in the good times and bad, unfortunately, we can’t always count on that being the case. In fact, the opposite is more often true: people only pay real attention to what you have to say when they need something from you or want to give you advice. When times are tough, this lack of interest can feel incredibly isolating. Everyone else’s noise gets in the way of your thoughts—and their negativity makes it harder for you to find a solution to your problems because their negativity starts influencing how you view your situation.

Interested in learning more?

In today’s business world, getting caught up in the negative is easy. Fluctuations in the market. Changes in industry trends. New projects that go wrong. It’s easy to imagine several ways that you might fail or fall short. But there’s no reason to do that. Instead, focus on the things you can control: your attitude, your effort, and your support system. And if you encounter trouble along the way (which you probably will), remember why positive thinking is essential in business and what problems tend to be associated with pessimism.

Positive thinking can’t solve everything—no one would maintain that it could—but when used effectively and combined with sheer hard work and dedication, Stoute Web Solutions can help you succeed.