Ask HN: What's the hardest part about staying positive?

3 points·supercall··2 comments

Mindset is everything. What do you do to preserve a healthy and productive mindset while working? What's the hardest part about this?

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The hardest part can often be generating your own source of positive feedback when you're not getting it from the outside world or from even those around you. It's very easy to be positive when you're drowning in investors and champagne, but not when you've been told "no" again or when the setback you've encountered forces you to realize that you've lied to yourself and you knew all along with you should have been doing but you weren't doing.

Imagining my goal as inevitable, as something that's already happened helps me stay positive. Anytime I encounter negativity that isn't productive I consider it just a delay in a waste of my time.

Reappraisal is also a very powerful skill for remaining positive. If you stop looking at your mistakes as setbacks or even mistakes and simply as "cost paid for acquired wisdom" you'll realize that your value has still increased because you are now wiser.

Attitude and Philosophy join hands in the dance of Experience. Remember how you talk to yourself is how you'll talk to others, so treat yourself with kindness, gentleness, care, surprise, and support. We must each be champions of our own kindness.

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