At the risk of oversimplifying some severe problems, nothing is more important than remembering who you are. Once anybody has lost hope, depression quickly moves in & is almost impossible to kick out until the reframing of your perspective occurs.

Anybody with a low-value view of themselves is in jeopardy of falling over when they are side-swiped by bad news or a less-than-ideal outcome. If we do not value ourselves as we were designed to do, we are open to viewing ourselves with a victim mentality.

Why is this?

• People with a positive & healthy outlook are expectant of good things coming down the pike for them

• Having an optimistic outlook naturally attracts other people & seemingly favorable circumstances into their lives

• Working on a positive mindset allows that person to take on projects, relationships & activities, and they expect them to work out

• A person with a positive outlook on life will invariably come out on top more often than not

• Focusing on the positive will help you overcome the more difficult circumstances in life, you will be expecting better things for your future

A person who does not put an extreme value on who they are will invariably fall into pessimistic & negative self-talk when things go wrong. Telling themselves they are unworthy, they messed up, and they should have done this or that.

Concentrating on what went wrong in situations or circumstances instead of focusing on any positive. They will allow their thoughts to think there is no hope of any good coming out of a bad situation. These thoughts cause great misery linked with unhelpful & debilitating emotions.

They lose their peace, patience, joy & happiness and miss out on living a life that could be fun, exciting & full of adventure.

The first key to being positive when things are not going to plan is understanding who you are. If you have a positive self-view & genuine love for yourself, you will naturally approach life with confidence & determination.

These are just a few bible truths about who you are:

• God says you were designed, made with planning, thought & that you are unique. There is not one person on the planet who is like you, and there will never be again.

• You were made with a plan for your life, a plan to prosper you in all areas of your life. We are even told that what God has in store for us nobody has ever seen, nobody has even heard, or no mind even in their wildest imaginations could even dream up!

• We are told that God somehow knew you before the foundation of the world before you were in your mother’s womb.

• God knows the exact hairs on your head at any given time, even your every movement.

• You were born to a particular mother; you had a specific father; you were born at an exact time and place, into a particular set of circumstances & will even have a special day to die – none of this is chance.

• God wants to spend time with you; he has invited you to bring EVERY single circumstance & situation before him & has promised to give you peace even amongst horrendous events.

• We are protected, loved & told that nothing will ever overwhelm us.

• The assurance is given over & over again that all our needs will be provided for.

• God has promised to give you good gifts; we must just ask. We are told he wants to bless, advance, and lift us up.

• If the bible story is true, God even sacrificed the ultimate that could be offered for you. His love for you is indisputable.

How you view yourself and your perception of yourself is critical to how you go about your day. If you see yourself as valued, important, loved, cared for, planned for, and provided for, then your outlook is entirely different from someone who feels worthless, useless & unloved.

In all circumstances, at all times of the day, remind yourself who you are. Start identifying your thoughts and know what is being played in your head. Tell yourself the truth, who made you, where you have come from, and where you are returning to. If any thought in your head is not congruent with this fact, chuck it out.

Loving yourself is the first great hack on how to be positive even when things aren’t going to plan.

Isn’t it amazing that if our minds are left to wonder, it always returns with negative thoughts, & from that, negative emotions? Joe Dispenza says this is linked to thousands of years of our ancestors living in circumstances where we needed to think of all the threats constantly; otherwise, we didn’t survive.

Maybe he is right; either way, leaving your mind to think alone will return thoughts not designed to lift you up. These thoughts will continually pester you with ‘What if,’ ‘You’re not good enough,’ ‘You can’t do that,’ ‘You don’t deserve that,’ and so on.

Your subconscious runs on a program with no input from you. We need to control our minds. We need to control our thoughts.

Earl Nightingale talks about how our minds are like gardens. The garden doesn’t mind what plants are placed in the soil. If we plant poisonous plants, these plants will grow just as well as some pretty flowering plants or fruit plants. It is irrelevant what plant is planted in the garden; it will return to us what was planted.

Our minds are the same; we can feed our mind ‘poison’ & it will return poison. We can provide our mind thoughts that will ‘flower & bear fruit’ & our mind will return ideas that bear fruit to us.

Jim Rohn talks about the need to continually feed our mind positive thoughts (even if we don’t feel like it), & we will inevitably become a more positive person.

Say you want to learn a musical instrument; the only way to learn an instrument is through repetitiveness. If you practice hard enough, eventually, your subconscious will be able to take over the task & you will be able to play without much thought.

This is just how our minds work; if we want to be more positive, we must continually train our minds. The first real win of training our subconscious is that as positive thoughts are returned from the subconscious, the inevitable result is that you will feel more positive about most situations and start feeling positive emotions. Think of any positive person you know, observe their positive energy, and ask how they became such an optimistic person.

• Start listening to yourself (continually). Start to be aware of what thoughts are entering your mind.

• Listen to these thoughts, don’t ignore or suppress them.

• Could you take a look at these thoughts? Are they true?

• Start to re-frame these thoughts. Are you unloved? Are you useless? Will this end in disaster? – Of course not.

• Tell yourself you are grateful for the negative thought; it is only trying to protect you.

• Take these thoughts and start telling your mind the truth. You are special, you are loved, you are unique, you can do anything you set your mind to, you will eventually succeed no matter what, you will pick yourself up as many times as needed, and you will NEVER give up.

• Tell yourself if the creator of all things loves you, who are you to argue? This is a truth & cannot be changed.

When you start ‘preaching’ to yourself & not ‘listening’ to yourself, & you do this on a continual loop, virtually all the time, throughout the day, your subconscious starts to take on the new program.

Practicing this ‘preaching to yourself’ (combined with gratefulness & bringing every concern to God), your mind has no choice but to start returning thoughts on good things in your life. If you doubt this, scientific peer-reviewed studies now prove this.

A whole arm of science called epigenetics tells us positive thinking can even affect our physical health. Optimism can heal our bodies.

Our physical and mental health is affected directly by our thoughts. Learning to be aware and ‘catch’ our thoughts is now proven to reduce stress; it directly impacts our health and wellness. A positive psychology & a positive mental attitude will catapult you into a life where you feel happy & more content. This is not just the Bible; this is science.

It would be best if you got into the habit of constantly talking to yourself and continually correcting your thoughts. Remember, your mind is like a garden; it doesn’t care what you are planting. Even if you may not believe the ideas you are telling yourself, you NEED to get into this habit.

Controlling your thoughts is the second great hack to be positive even when things aren’t going to plan

No, initially controlling your thoughts takes hard work. You need to adjust your thinking to be aware of what your mind says. Do yourself a massive favor, and get good at catching & analyzing these thoughts, accepting them & turning them into the truth.

Your mind loves to dwell on the negative. It gets very uncomfortable when you start to change your thought process.

You may not believe you are loved, you may not believe you will get through a hard time, or you may not think you can accomplish much (even though as we have seen, these are all true). Your subconscious really doesn’t care. It will return what is being planted.

If you start catching unhelpful thoughts, listening to them & then reframing them, even though you may not initially believe what you are telling yourself, your subconscious will eventually produce beliefs or thoughts that it is being fed. You will become more positive and start seeing the positive side of things without trying. This is inevitable.

The principle of feeding your mind true, correct, and positive thoughts is the same. The Bible tells us to maintain a positive outlook always. God commands us to be confident & determined – even when there is no evidence for this. It is called ‘faith’. The Bible also tells us we cannot please God without faith. We must step out in faith if we want peace, freedom, joy, happiness, and fulfillment. Stop harmful & destructive thoughts & you will be amazed that things will improve. The subconscious will learn the program.

If you plant seeds in your garden, you will not see any growth for a while, but you know that even though you can’t see anything, eventually, a plant will arrive (you have faith that the plant will grow). A lot also depends on the soil and the watering. Your mind is the same. You need to ‘tender’ your mind. You will eventually, entirely naturally, think positive thoughts; it is inevitable. Even though you can’t see growth, if you are planting seeds & watering them, your subconscious mind will return these thoughts to you.

There is an onus on you to change if you want to hack how to be positive when things aren’t going to plan. It would be best to steel yourself to stay positive even when circumstances are complicated and don’t regress into old thinking. Renew your mind, and use as much positive material as possible to help you train your brain to think on excellent & wholesome thoughts. Celebrate life, wake up each day, and be grateful you can walk to the shower, be thankful there is hot water, and be grateful you can pray to God.

Practice positive self-talk, and stop running yourself down. If things seem difficult, take a little time to reflect on your thoughts & spend time bringing this to God. Focus on the good of every person around you. It is so easy to look at the negative of others, catch these thoughts, nobody is perfect, and all those around you have some good traits you can start reflecting on. Even if you don’t feel like it, celebrate those around you, continually look for their good points, and thank God for these people in your life.