The Optimism Advantage: 50 Simple Truths to Transform Your Attitudes and Actions into Results

Chapter 11. Managing Your Own Motivation Means Catching Yourself Being Effective

"I wish I would have followed my instincts earlier in my career rather than looking for others' approval. While it's easy for people to be their greatest critics, it took me years to become my own best advocate."

—Ellen Langas Campbell, President of NouSoma Communications

Constructive self-criticism is an important part of life, but so is self-support. Mistakes help you learn what not to do. Acknowledging your successes allows you to reinforce what's already working.

So instead of repeatedly focusing on what's going wrong, take the optimistic approach and concentrate more intently on your own positives. Take time every day to examine what you've done that has contributed to your achievements—both on and off the job. After all, a big part of maintaining a healthy, optimistic perspective in challenging times is managing your own motivation. This requires that you catch yourself being effective. You've learned the importance of nurturing gratitude for the happy accidents that happen—those things that you don't control but can and should appreciate. It is all the more important to appreciate what you do control—the actions that you initiate.

"To be encouraged look at how far you have come. To be discouraged look at how far you have to go."

—Mark Sanborn

"Calm self-confidence is as far from conceit as the desire to earn a decent living is remote from greed."

—Channing Pollock

As we discussed in the last chapter, ...