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SDF Toolkit: Are You a Positive or Negative Thinker?

When you ask people if they are a positive or a negative thinker, the positive person will always know the answer and respond with a smile before saying, “absolutely.”

People who are unsure or who know they definitely are full of negativity, will probably pause and think for a moment before answering, “I’m not sure or yes the world has made me that way.”

There are online quizzes that people can take to see where they stand on this question. For today, we can look at the positive person vs the negative, so that you can see if you need to start making changes today.

A positive person will roll out of bed and even if somehow they are late, will not start their day off with a negative overtone. They will just acknowledge it happened and move forward with energy. The negative person will grumble and start rushing around, making mistakes and telling themselves that this day is going to suck so bad they should just stay in bed.

As the positive person starts their day, they might do some exercise and then eat a healthy breakfast. They want to stay in shape and because of their mindset, they rarely get sick and if they do, the recovery time is much faster because of their constant positive state of mind.

Negative people, at the start of the day, may tell themselves the day is a waste, no sense making breakfast and they will just sit in a long line, waiting for a breakfast sandwich, or a doughnut and coffee. They hop in the car and feeling dragged out, mumble that perhaps they are getting a flu and staying in bed would be better.

When they do get sick, it is more often than their positive friends and family. It often takes them a long time to get over an illness and they tend to suffer from a fair amount of anxiety and depression. The clouds over their heads are always black.

Positive people are leaders and you will frequently find them at their jobs, striving to succeed and move up in the world. They make good decisions in their workplace and are confident they can overcome any obstacle and thrive on challenges.

A positive thinker takes full responsibility for the job and has no issue holding themselves accountable. Our negative person hopes that they will not be called on at work to do anything outside their normal tasks and frequently will make themselves as invisible as possible. They don’t make good decisions and they are aware that they are a liability to the company, so cloaking themselves becomes a part of their job.

When they are called out, they usually point the finger and say things like, “well it’s not my job” or “John never showed me how to do that”. “It’s John’s fault that order was processed wrong.”

Our positive person knows there are big issues in their immediate circle and the world itself. Yet that doesn’t stop them from being optimistic that things can change and they can be a leader in that change.

They radiate positive energy and this is frequently passed to others who come close to them. They are beacons of hope for those who are unsure of what the future holds.

Instead of being a beacon of hope, our negative person is a deep pit of negative thoughts and emotions, and the stink of their negativity makes others want to avoid them.

They don’t have to stay this way; once they learn they can change and be the type of person that others admire. They just have to acknowledge and then do the work.


About the author – Nasira Jamal  is a Senior Consultant for Centre 4 Learning