6 Tips for Building Positivity and Possibility in your Life

Surrounded by negativity? Here’s some tips to ditch that negative energy. They’ll build more positivity and possibility in your world.

It was a long, long, LONG time – before I acted. My close friends and partner probably let out a huge sigh of relief, and danced on the spot, when I finally did take ACTION.

My realisation can be summed up as:

6 Tips – To Steer towards Positivity and Possibility:

Tip 1: Read and Listen to Inspiring and Positive People outside Education

Strength-based training and positive psychology were key influences on me.

Introduced via a Counselling Course I was completing, they gave me a different lens through which to view my situation. A lens that completely shifted my business as usual practices.

Online solopreneurs along with Internet Marketing and Creativity Entrepeneurs via the world of podcasts also gave me a different way to see education. 

Key Takeaway: Go outside the ‘business as usual’ range of people that you often engage with. Be challenged. Be Stirred. Be inspired in unusual and different directions.

Tip 2: Switch off Negativity / Tune into Positivity

Turn off the news and other media sources that traffic in gloom and doom, that reward nastiness and negativity with air-time.

Seek out positivity – Seek out alternatives that focus on taking action, on bringing about change. Alternatives that begin with the notion that ‘you can do it’, that ‘you have much to offer’.

Seek out people  who are only too willing to share ideas and resources, as well as offer support and acceptance.

For me, in all these respects, the world of podcasts along with my Personal Learning Network (PLN) on Twitter, were critical.

Tip 3: Steer Conversations Towards Positivity and Possibility

Find yourself part of a ‘downer’ conversation filled with griping, whinging, bitching… You get my drift.

Shift the focus. Start talking about:

• the positive interactions you’ve had with students;

• the shifts in understanding or skill you’ve witnessed;

• the risks that you’ve seen students take;

• the wonderful support you’ve seen students give to each other;

• the rollicking adventures you’ve been on with your students.

Sure there are things that are not so good in anyone’s class or anyone’s school but these don’t have to dominate each and every conversation. They don’t have to define us.Expand and Amplify the space around positivity – wherever it occurs in your life.

Tip 4: Look Elsewhere / Pay Attention to Positivity in your Local Community

Like a moth to a flame, do you find yourself noticing all the negative things in your neighborhood – an ugly building, a dying tree, or the litter lying all around (or am I over-sharing here)?

• For a powerful technique, that really gets me out of the doldrums, and calms my racing mind, please check out my Flick the Switch blog-post.

  • It’s inspired by the field of mindfulness which is well worth investigating. Try out Flick The Switch and let me know how you go. 

Tip 5: Re-Connect with your Creatively Awesome Self

Negativity was so not what I was about. Ditch it where you can.

Re-connect with your exciting, passionate and creative times in the classroom, when you knew that you were making a real difference.Those moments when you’d catch yourself saying ‘YES!’ or high-fiving yourself (when no-one was looking, or maybe that’s just me).

• Revisit photos, work-plans, diaries or journals of those fun, creative teaching times;
• Have a ‘remember when’ conversation with a close colleague. Write down what comes up. It’ll get you in touch with your Key Drivers, those things that make you tick.
• This very act of remembering – shines a light on what to bring back or have more of – in your life.

Tip 6: Build the Foundation for Escape (If you want to & When you’re able to)

• If all around you see formerly passionate, wonderful educators- who’ve lost their dazzle – or are struggling to stay afloat;
• If most of the conversations in your work-place begin with a whinge;
• If the first assumption is usually negative;
• If management is steering the school well away from your mission – from the very values that inspire you as a teacher – that make you get up everyday to teach your students. 

Then start planning, or preparing an escape route. Easier said than done, I know, if you have financial commitments.