It’s 2019, guys! We’ve turned the corner and hit a new year!
Of course, there are two main ways of looking at any new year. You could either feel:
- Here we go again. The same stupid thing all over again.
or:
- Whoop-whoop! It’s a brand new year, filled with new and exciting possibilities. Let’s go!
The mindset or attitude with which we kick off a new year is actually extremely important.
If you start off in a negative manner, thinking negative thoughts and expressing negative ideas, you are actually steering yourself towards a lot more negative experiences.
The reason for this is because you are viewing everything from a negative perspective, or you are (either actively or subconsciously) looking for negative aspects in everything around you and in everything people do. If this is happening, of course you’ll have negative experiences, because that’s how you set yourself up to perceive things in 2019.
For example, if you tell yourself that you’ll do badly in Maths anyway, no matter how hard you work, what will happen? You probably will do badly, because you won’t be motivated to work hard at all – because why bother? This will lead to even more negative feelings of: “See? I told you I’d do badly.” You saw yourself failing even before you started the school year. You actually set yourself up for failing.
On the other hand, if you kick off the new year with a positive mindset, thinking and expressing positive thoughts, chances are that you will have a great 2019. Why? Because you’ll tend to see the positive aspects in whatever is happening, and also the positive aspects in people’s behaviour. This will give you a positive experience, which will make you feel great.
For example, if you tell yourself that Maths is going to be okay this year, even if last year didn’t go too well, it probably will. The thing is, because you see yourself doing better this year, you are actually motivating yourself to get to that point where you are doing better. Get it? You are subconsciously motivating yourself to work harder so that you will be able to do better. So what will happen? You’ll start working harder, bit by bit, possibly without even realising that you are doing so, and as a result you might find that you understand the lessons better – and eventually, you might find that you are doing better and better in tests or exams.
Our brain is a marvellous thing indeed.
So why on earth would we even bother with negative thoughts and emotions? Let’s see this year as an exciting gift, an unopened box full of wonderful opportunities. The great thing about a new year is that we are given 365 different chances to try again. If one day doesn’t work out as you would have liked, there’s another coming along within 24 hours. (In a leap year, we even get a bonus day!) Each new day offers us a new chance to try again, to see that specific day from a positive point of view.
So let’s see ourselves succeed. Let’s see ourselves doing better and better. Let’s see ourselves achieve great things. Let’s see marvellous things for ourselves. Because what we’ll see is what we’ll get.