It’s hard to stay positive and focused on happiness all the time, isn’t it?  I know it is for me.  Working on this blog every day helps me stay focused on happiness and keeping a positive attitude, but even with that there are times where it’s really difficult to keep that positive mental attitude.

One way to keep yourself focused on the positive is to eliminate as much of the negative input as you can.  I’ve written before about limiting how much news you consume.

Something that I cut out in 2008 was talk radio.  I used to listen to talk radio regularly when I was in the car.  I listened to both conservative talk shows and liberal talk shows trying to get a balance of ideas and opinions.  What I found, was that the more I listened, the more negative I felt.  No matter which side I listened to all I heard was complaints about the other side.  Rarely did I hear any positive solutions.  Even when there was a solution, it seemed to be framed with a tone that cast the other side as the demons.

My family and I took a vacation in late June and early July of last year.  That was the last time I listened to a talk radio show.  I completely broke the habit.  I don’t miss it one bit.

The Next Step

Cutting out negative input is a good way to start.  However, you should also add some positive input.

There are lots of ways to do this.  I enjoy listening to motivational recordings by people like Tony Robbins, Wayne Dyer, the late Leo Buscaglia, Zig Zigler, Brian Tracy, and others.

You may enjoy some positive, uplifting music.  Or maybe a recorded version of The Bible would help you stay focused on happiness.

Feel free to alternate your positive inputs:  music one day, motivational recordings the next, maybe another day with silence.

The key is to feed your head with something positive on a regular basis.  The more you do that, the easier it will be to keep yourself focused and grounded in the positive.  The easier it will be, too, to re-focus when you’re challenged by a difficult situation that shakes your happiness.

This whole idea can be summed up with four lines from the song “Ac-cen-tuate the Positive” by Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer:

You’ve got to accentuate the positive
Eliminate the negative
And latch on to the affirmative
Don’t mess with Mister In-Between

To your happiness!