3 Ways to Turn Negative Experiences Around Any hardships you face in life should be treated as opportunities to grow into a better person.
By Matt Mayberry Edited by Dan Bova
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Do you feel that you struggle with the negative experiences that have occurred up to this point in your life? Maybe you got fired from your job, failed at achieving an important goal or even could be battling something in your personal life that has been difficult for you to come to grips with.
Whatever that negative experience may be for you, there is hope beyond your current state of mind. If there is one thing that I continually see that completely wipes out aspiring business owners, athletes or anyone for that matter, is the inability to turn negative experiences into positive ones.
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This kind of turnaround is a vital prerequisite if you aspire to become all that you can be and achieve unlimited amounts of success. Here are three ways that have made a tremendous difference in my personal and professional life when it comes to turning the negative into a positive.
1. Value the negative experiences.
The first mistake that most people make when viewing their negative experiences is they neglect to value them. They think of everything negative that has happened up to this point in their lives as something that wasn't supposed to happen. This is a mighty, major mistake. The reason why is because this not only instantly puts you in a bad mood with a negative outlook, but it prevents you from growing through the experience.
There are two types of people: those who grow and those who go through the negatives in their lives. In order to grow through it all, it's imperative that you value all of the negative experiences that occur from here on out and understand that it's an opportunity to get better.
Related: How Positivity Makes You Healthy and Successful
2. Don't rush judgment.
This is one of my personal downfalls when it comes to turning the negative into a positive. When a negative experience occurs, one of the first things that tends to happen is your mind instantly begins to create a scenario that is completely different than what's really going on. It takes work on your part to put a positive twist to whatever it is that you are facing -- it doesn't just happen out of nowhere. The decisions that are rushed in the face of a negative experience usually don't end well.
The next time you face a negative experience, don't be so quick to judge or go along with the story that your mind was so fast to come up with. Start to look for the message that lies within that negative experience, as every single negative experience in our lives carries a seed of a growth lesson.
3. Take complete responsibility for your life.
It really saddens me when I see that someone has let their outside circumstances define them. It doesn't have to be that way. As individuals, regardless of how much or how little we have, we ultimately determine our destinies. That's why you will see men and women who grew up poor go on create an extraordinary amount of wealth and success for themselves.
On the other side of the spectrum, you have the men and women who grew up with loving parents and what would seem like a fabulous childhood go on to live beneath their full potential. No matter how tough your life has been, you have the opportunity right now to change your direction and create the life of your dreams. And that all starts with taking full responsibility for where you are and everything that has happened up to this point.
Related: The 5 Benefits of Being Optimistic
