Dawn Staley, the current women's basketball coach at South Carolina, played her college ball at the University of Virginia. During her time there she wore a rubber band on her wrist. Anytime she made a negative play, she would snap the band on her wrist as a reminder that it was a mistake, forgive yourself, learn from it, and play on. That simple action allowed her to control her thoughts.
We have the same power. Negative thoughts come into our minds and are usually tied to something in the past or something in the future. It could be a mistake you made or thoughts about a future event you're not looking forward to. Either way you no longer have control over what happened or what the outcome may be of a future event. You can only control your thoughts and actions in the moment.
The first three steps to creating a positive mental attitude are awareness, breaking the negative thought, then replacing it. Find your own "rubber band" by recognizing the negative thoughts, "snapping" out of it, and then re-framing the thoughts with more positive words of action. In other words, identify the source of the thoughts, forgive yourself, learn from it, and move forward.
The next series of blog posts will focus on other steps to creating a Positive Mental Attitude.