As the year is coming to an end, I find myself looking back on the months passed and the good and bad things that happened in them. The memories I shared, friends I made, downfalls I had and more. I feel as though often times we try to focus on what memories we made in the past months to determine how good that month and eventually that year was, but we never think about our growth and how we changed as a person. Did we change for better or worse? Are we \ growing as an individual? I realized this toward the end of October and it made me think have I been growing as a person? I realized as the years go on and I grow older, I want to be growing internally as well. What’s the point of getting older if you’re not growing too? In order to grow, we have to realize what we want in life, how we want to be portrayed, and what we need to work on and change to get there. This made me start thinking. Thinking about the type of person I want to be and be known as to others. When people see me, will their face light up? Am I someone people want to be around? Am I a friend someone cherishes?
This challenged me to change a characteristic about myself and try to maintain and focus on that one thing. What better time to do it than the beginning of the month? On the first of November, I was scrolling down my Instagram when I saw a post that said: “Be the energy you want to attract”
Immediately, I found what I wanted to focus on about myself. The energy I give off and that was the day I decided I was going to push myself to be positive every day. Hence the hashtag, #NoNegativityNovember.
Personally, I was never a negative person so it wasn’t a huge change to start being positive but it did take some constant, daily reminders. One way I reminded myself to stay positive was writing on my mirror so when I looked at it in the morning, I can recite it over to myself before I leave for the day. People always say when you see things written and repeat them to yourself out loud, it makes you have more of a positive outlook on life. Some of the things I ended up writing were: positivity is key, be the energy you want to attract, be unique, you are creative, beautiful, and talented, and when you start to blend in, is the day you start to lose yourself. Repeating these affirmations every morning before I started my day really helped me to stay in a good and positive mood all day.
Since I’ve started this new thing, I have started to see some change. My friends have noticed too. Whenever I see people and friends out, they seem excited to see me because they know I’m usually in a good mood and being friendly every day. Whenever I’m with a group of people and everyone else’s mood is ok or down, I’m always the one telling them to focus on the positive, it’s going to be okay, etc. Within myself, I’m starting to realize I don’t get as upset over things because I haven’t been letting situations or people ruin my mood. Whenever I get some bad news or come across a problem, I immediately start thinking what can I do to fix it, is it fixable instead of instantly getting mad or upset and letting it ruin my day.
I encourage anyone to try #NoNegativityNovember and try to be positive. Maybe a month seems like a lot, but if you start off with a day and then a week and so on it’ll seem easier. By reminding yourself to stay positive, you’ll find yourself feeling better about yourself and feeling more confident. For myself, I plan to keep going with this no negativity for the rest of the year, so it becomes a habit and I can look back on the end of my year and say I’ve grown and become a better and happier person. Whatever it is that you are feeling you should change and work on, start today and try to stick with it so you can look back and see how far you’ve come.