I would guess thousands of books and millions of words have been written on the importance
of a positive mental attitude. At the center of every book on "Success" the key ingredient or
secret to making it all work is a positive mental attitude.
 
                              

Many professional athletes have figured this out and hire psychologists to help them with
their mental attitudes to up their competitive advantage. 
Here, its your Life By Design advantage!

But what can you do when your just feeling blah and Nelly Negative just doesn't want
to pack up and move along inside your head?

1.) MUSIC

Think about the song(s) or artist(s) that always has the power to move and shift your spirit for
the better. If you are like me, certain music has much more power than others. I sort of look at
it like pharmacology, and you are self medicating-define your state, and prescribe accordingly!



The divas always work just like Advil for me: 
   Whitney,    
      Mariah 
         and Luther (May God Rest His Soul In Peace).

      



Yet, for Derrick there is only one pharmaceutical grade of cure-all attitude ills -
GUARANTEED and that is Cher.

   
Oh, wait a minute, this isn't really Cher!   



Here she is! 
Since the release of her Farewell Tour LIVE! CD, the number of times I haved listened to
it is well up in the thousands! And the beauty of it is it's still as powerful as ever, even
though I used it so many timesit always works!
So get your music ready and make it work for you!

2.) GRATITUDE

Too often it is easy to find ourselves focusing on what we don't want and what we don't have.
It's a surefire way to make you feel lousy and keep you busy, most of us have lots of things we
don't want and would like to have! The key here is to immediately shift your thinking when you
find yourself caught in this trap.



Sit down and take out some paper, your journal or at your computer keyboard and start making
a list of all of the things you are most grateful for. Just free write everything as it comes to
mind and commit to staying with it until you feel you've made the shift inside. Usually, an item
will come to me and I literally just start to smile. If I focus on just the ones I love alone and
how grateful I am to have them in my life, I can't help but to have a complete shift to a more positive mental attitude. Keep building the list as often as necessary.



Play a game with yourself over time and see how many entries you can accumulate! The last
time I did this exercise the entry that made me smile the most was "I am so grateful for not
having a hairy back!"



Go for it!

3.) EMPOWERING QUESTIONS

I love great questions that have the power to completely change your mental state and what
you are focusing on! I even have a section here on the site dedicated to amazing questions.
The previous exercise is really your response to the question "What are you most grateful for?"
Try asking yourself "What am I proud about in my life right now?"



Again, it's great to write out your answers. As the responses come to you, really focus on what about "it" makes you most proud and how it makes you feel right now. Pay attention to the images
in your thoughts and continue to focus on them. You'll be feeling like a million bucks in no time!