By Holly • 15 Comments
We're all way too hard on ourselves for no good reason. However, it's time to change that by altering the way that we think. Instead of picking yourself apart every time you look in the mirror or when you're thinking about your life, you should focus on the positive things. In order to start doing that, you should challenge yourself to avoid these negative thoughts for 24 hours:
You're allowed to wear makeup to enhance your features and cover up your pimples. However, when you wash it all off at the end of the day, you shouldn't consider yourself ugly. You're just as beautiful without makeup as you are with makeup, even though you look slightly different. Make your best effort to stop telling yourself you'd look prettier with a smaller nose or bigger breasts and start complimenting yourself on all the things you love. It's not cocky. It's confident.
You're not stupid if you fail a test. You're not stupid if you get lost on your way to a party. Intelligence comes in many forms. You can't excel at everything, so if you're terrible at math, don't call yourself stupid. You just need to work on your calculations.
It's easy to assume your life is boring when you see pictures on Facebook and Instagram of your friends having fun. However, you're just as awesome as they are. Maybe they like to have fun while drinking, but you like to have fun while playing video games. One activity isn't superior to the other.
Don't ever let yourself think that no one loves you. Your parents love you, even if they don't show it or if you've never met them. Your pets love you. Your friends love you. The singers you listen to every night love you, even though they don't know your name.
You're not a failure for losing an art competition, as long as you don't give up art altogether. As long as you're trying to accomplish something, you can never consider yourself a failure. Your willingness to try is a form of success all on its own.
It doesn't matter what the "it" is. Maybe you think you'll never get your dream job. Maybe you think you'll never get a boyfriend. Just remember that a negative attitude won't get you far. Tell yourself that you can do it and the world will seem a whole lot brighter.
Don't freak out if you can't figure out what you want to do with your life. It doesn't matter if you're still in high school or if you've graduated from college years ago. You're life is not pointless. You just haven't figured out the direction you want it to go in yet. It takes some people longer than others to find their path in life, so try not to tear yourself down for not knowing what your true passion is.
Challenge yourself to avoid these negative thoughts for 24 hours. Once you accomplish that, challenge yourself to do it again and again until you banish these thoughts from your mind completely. Which one of these thoughts do you think you'll have the most trouble stopping yourself from thinking about?