A negative attitude can destroy almost all urges to be creative. Before I can even start to think about a creative idea, the negative thoughts slam into my mind and I give up before I start.

The bad thing about negative attitudes - they are easy to generate. I think it is human nature to find the negative in a situation - something about our biological makeup. When it comes down to survival having a negative reflection could mean the difference between life and death, but in our modern world we aren't really being chased by lions. At least I'm not. There could be someone out there being chased by a lion. In that case: "I'm going to be eaten by a lion! Run!" isn't negative, but a real possibility and good advice.

Usually, negative thoughts pop into my head without much effort. When I'm not actively paying attention to them they can multiply like rabbits with minimal effort. I don't want to be this negative person.

I either read this advice or heard it from a from friend: bring awareness to your negative thoughts (so you can counteract them) by getting a notebook and writing each negative thought in this notebook for say a week or less. After the week is up, I will realize how much negative I have in my life. This exercise is somehow supposed to open my eyes to my unconscious thoughts.

Okay. I get what the advice is doing, but to me it sounded even more depressing than just being my old negative self. First, I think of the negative thought, then realize it to the extent that I WRITE it down. How is this not re-enforcing my bad attitude?

This advice percolated in my brain for a bit and then I thought. No. This is bad. Very bad for me. The object is to be more positive to achieve balance. Creativity doesn't care if I'm positive or negative. There are plenty of creative projects that can come from a negative or emotional place in our lives, but the key for me was to have balance. Because too much of one or the other had my creative pixies running from me like I was the lioness chasing them!

I decided a better strategy for me is every negative thought I have about myself or of my creative ability replace it immediately with a positive thought! I feel this is the best way to reach the creative potential I think I have.

Let me know how you balance your negative thoughts with positive ones.

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