Golden Retriever Puppy: Breed a Rescue Dog

5 Ways To Feel Super-Optimistic: Tips for Your Health, Wealth, & Career Success

Optimism is the hidden key to your personal and business success. Optimists possess a clear vision of an exciting life, confidently work on goals to achieve their vision, and take seflf-responsibility. In contrast, pessimists have no clear vision of a fantastic life, and they love to complain, blame, and moan.

How can you become more optimistic?

I will divulge five little-known "secrets" to help you immediately feel upbeat, confident, and optimistic.

Research: Why Optimism Is Good for You

Tons of research prove that optimists do vastly better than pessimists in their

1. Health

2. Wealth

3. Career success

Health.

A growing body of "psychoneuroimmunology" medical research links how a person's emotions affect his or her health. Some intriguing findings: Optimistic people are less likely to get sick than pessimistic or depressed people. This includes illnesses ranging from common colds to cancer. Optimistic people also get well faster than pessimists.

Wealth.

A fascinating study found that self-made millionaires worry much less than people who earn as much money but have not achieved millionaire status. What is the connection between being optimistic and making yourself into a millionaire? Optimists are much more likely than pessimists to make a goal of achieving millionaire status. They also keep plugging away at being frugal, investing wisely and working hard to turn financial dreams into reality. In contrast, pessimists are less likely to set net-worth goals or consistently take actions to become millionaires.

Career Success.

Many companies use my firm's Abilities & Behavior Forecaster™ pre-employment tests when choosing applicants. To start, a company has high-achievers take the test. Also, underachievers may take the test. Then, we identify how the high-achievers score, so the company can prefer hiring applicants who score like its profitable, productive employees. Intriguing finding: One of the Forecaster™ test's 18 scales is Optimism. Typically, high-achievers typically score high on the Optimism test scale, while underachievers score moderate or low on Optimism. This repeated finding verifies that optimists achieve greater career success than pessimists.

So, how can you boost your optimism to achieve greater health, wealth, and career success? Here are five immediately useful techniques. Each takes only one minute to do, so you can start fast and get results today.

1st Technique: Straight Posture & Big Steps

Optimistic people use straight posture, walk fast, and take big steps. Pessimistic people slouch, walk slowly, and use small steps. Imagine seeing someone walking with his or her head held high, shoulders back, walking fairly fast with big steps. That person exudes confidence. In contrast, a person whose head and shoulders slouch and walks with slow, small steps reeks a gloomy mood.

Why is a straight posture crucial? Because before you can straighten out your head, you first need to straighten up your body!

2nd Technique: Cheerful Voice

A lightning quick way to feel upbeat is to use a cheerful voice. Think of a time when you felt annoyed. Then, your phone rang. You answered it, and your caller was someone you wanted to impress. I bet you spoke in a cheerful voice so you would impress your caller. Result: You immediately started feeling your mood lift.

Why is a cheerful voice an incredibly powerful optimism tool? Psychological research proved that a person emotionally feels the emotion he or she is acting at the moment. So, if you act cheerful, you feel cheerful. And a cheerful voice is the fastest way to act optimistic.

3rd Technique: Use Upbeat Words

You can use types of words: upsetting and upbeat. Pessimists relish using upsetting words, while optimists excel at using upbeat words.

Examples: Upsetting Words: Problem, Tired & Depressed

Upbeat Words: Opportunity, Recharging, Bumming

For example, a pessimist says, "I have a problem." In contrast, an optimist would say, "I have an opportunity to do better next time!"

4th Technique: Use Upbeat Attitudes

I find the chief way to become an optimist simply is to focus on solutions – and not focus on problems. Every time a difficulty pops up, immediately create solutions and put them into action. Examples:

Upsetting Attitudes: Focus on problems, Dwelling on weaknesses,and Thinking about financial woes.

Upbeat Attitudes: Focus on solutions, Dwelling on strengths and Thinking about achieving prosperity

Why is a solution-focus ultra-important? Because you can only have one thought in your head at a time. So, if you focus on solutions, you cannot wallow in problems, complaining, blaming, or moaning.

5th Technique: Be a Magnificent Role Model

Remember a time you were a role model for someone. As you helped that person, you also helped yourself. As the proverb goes: "What goes around, comes around." If you are a delightfully optimistic role model for employees, co-workers, family and friends, then you simultaneously make yourself optimistic.

How do you do this? Make sure people see you using straight posture, taking big steps, speaking in a cheerful voice, using upbeat words and focusing on solutions.

Anyone can become an optimist. When people use these five techniques, they invariably tell me they feel heavy burdens lift off their shoulders. They feel positive, upbeat, and confident. You only need a few minutes to put these tips into action. They can be your key to enhanced health, wealth, and career success.

© Copyright 2005 Michael Mercer, Ph.D.

Michael Mercer, Ph.D., is a consultant, speaker, and founder of The Mercer Group, Inc. in Barrington, Illinois. He delivers speeches and seminars at conferences and companies. Dr. Mercer's Forecaster™ pre-employment tests are used by companies across North America. He co-authored "Spontaneous Optimism®: Proven Strategies for Health, Prosperity & Happiness" and also "Hire the Best -- & Avoid the Rest™". You can (1) subscribe to his free e-Newsletter at http://www.DrMercer.com or (2) phone him at (847) 382-0690.

MORE ARTICLES:

Domain Name Complications
Some of the tell tale sites of domain name that may be easier to obtain are a home to low quality Web sites. If you find yourself in this situation, contact the registered owner and ask if they would consider selling it to you. If the price is right, you may be able to make a deal. To maintain a cool head during the process, don?t act desperate to own the domain.

Film Recognized for Tackling Key Issues Within the U.S. Health Care System
American Library Association Announces Notable Videos of 2008.

Consumers Print Majority of Digital Photos at Home in European Countries -- New Photo Printing Survey Results Will Be Unveiled at the Lyra Europe Imag
Lyra Research (www.lyra.com), the digital imaging authority, has recently completed a survey of digital camera and camera phone users in France, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom. Results of this survey indicate that the majority of digital photos printed over the past 30 days, were printed in the home. Additional survey results will be presented at Lyra's Europe Imaging Conference on June 18 and 19 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

13 Health Benefits of Green Tea
Green tea has been enjoyed by people in China and Japan for thousands of years. Over the time it has become widely known in the West.

Blue Earth Solutions, Inc. announces definitive merger with RM Health International, Inc.
Blue Earth Solutions. Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: RMHL) announces the closing of its definitive merger with RM Health International Inc. Details are available through its 8-K filing on May 20, 2008. http://sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1387983/ 000125529408000496/0001255294-08-000496-index.htm. (Due to its length, this URL may need to be copied/pasted into your Internet browser's address field. Remove the extra space if one exists.)

Americans for Cures Foundation Announces 'Big Give' Star to Speak at Stem Cell Advocacy Conference
Americans for Cures Foundation is proud to announce that Carlana Stone, a star of Oprah Winfrey's "Big Give," will be speaking at its first State of Stem Cell Advocacy (SOSCA) Conference on April 12-13 at the UCSF Mission Bay Conference Center in San Francisco.

Reduce Your Health Care Cost: Sharing Experiences to Earn Portion of $150 Million
Through a patent-pending service at HealthLat, individuals who have undergone medical treatments are able to share experiences with others seeking first-hand personalized information and make significant earnings (http://www.healthlat.com/howtoearn).

SASid and Markel Insurance Company Introduce Short Term Medical Health Insurance for Individuals and Families
SASid, Inc. and Markel Insurance Company announced today that they have joined together to offer short term health plans for individuals and families. With the new Smart STM plans, consumers will be able to purchase health insurance over the internet or through independent insurance agents or brokers. The plans offer affordable, comprehensive health coverage for a broad array of commonly used health care services, and provide online user reviews and tools to help consumers make educated health care decisions.

Tips For Finding Affordable Group Health Insurance
Group health insurance can be made affordable, if you're just willing to roll up your sleeves. Today, a variety of ways are available that can help you to find the right product at the right price. It is up to you, the company owner or the organizations leader to find the best product for members and that means doing some research. A good way to find the most affordable, yet quality product is to get quotes from several companies and to compare them. You may find that several are affordable more so than you believe!

Creating A Great Domain Name For Your Business
You know how it is: you get a great business name idea and jump online to register a domain for it... only to find there is not just one name like yours, there are several names ? or name derivatives ? like yours, too.

Capture Memories with Epson Photo Printers and Photo Papers
When the memories that you have of your family, relatives, and friends are so dear to you, there is one way for you to keep these forever. When you capture fun moments in photographs, you will be able to look back in time. You will be able to reminisce the joys and laughters that you have shared with the people that you love. In order for you to bring back memories with such vivid colors, as if you are turning back the hands of time, you need an excellent photo printer. You will only be able to produce photos with clear and bright colors when you use top of the line printer and photo paper. If you are searching for one of the best photo printer, go for Epson.

A Caring Hand - The Billy Esposito Foundation - Proudly Presents the 6th Annual Fundraising Gala
A Caring Hand, The Billy Esposito Foundation; proudly presents the 6th annual gala - Handing Our Children a Brighter Future. The Fundraising Gala will be held Thursday May 1st, 2008 at the Hammerstein Ballroom from 6-10 p.m. The majority of the proceeds generated from this evening will go towards the funding of the recently opened, A Caring Hand, The Billy Esposito Foundation Bereavement Center.

Top 10 Compact Mobile Photo Printers of 2008
Are you looking at buying the latest digital photo printers for your home or office use?

The Food You Eat May Be Missing Something Vital To Your Health
Supplementation is an integral part of my nutritional plan for the simple reason that anyone even remotely interested in good health, will find it very difficult to obtain adequate nutrition from food alone. If you don?t want the belly to become your biggest body part, then be careful what you eat. Most people stick to the junk food trying to excuse themselves by saying they don?t have enough time or money. But deep inside, they know this isn?t true. You can make a positive change in your life and protein powders are good step in that direction. The best protein powders are not only safe, but beneficial when taken as directed. There are a lot of companies producing them, but this article will focus on just a few of them, their respective pr...

Two Poems: San Jeronimo Brook & [in English and Spanish]
Fair Andes! Thy arms reach highOf iron-woven solid stone Thu art a condor to the skyOf glory hidden in thy heartSo many paths, a maze of art..