A positive attitude may bring good health and success. If you have ever read any book about success you will discover how an optimistic attitude will keep you healthier and tremendously increase your chances of success.

An optimistic attitude has dramatically helped me improve my life in every single area. I overcame severe scalp psoriasis without a doctor and prescriptions. It's a fact that I wound not have overcome my psoriasis without a positive mental outlook. But you may be a skeptic. I know that I was most of my life. After all, if it were that easy why isn't everyone choosing to be optimistic and then reaping the rewards?

Don't take my word for it. Check out these facts:

"The journal Psychosomatic Medicine published results of a study showing that optimistic men had less than half the risk of heart disease than pessimistic men.". To read the rest of this article go to http://www.drweil.com/u/QA/QA326513/

"According to the premier health and wellness experts at Healthwise Inc., the substances that your brain produces depend in part on your thoughts, feelings, and expectations. If your attitude about an illness (or life in general) is negative and you don't have expectations that your condition will get better, your brain may not produce enough of the substances your body needs to heal." To read more go to http://www.vibe-life.com/nutrition.html

"Chris Peterson was teaching a class in abnormal psychology at Virginia Tech when he told his students to fill out an Attributional Style Questionnaire - a carefully designed test that determines a person's level of optimism and pessimism. The students also answered questions about their general health, including how often they went to a doctor.

Peterson followed the health of his students the following year and discovered that the pessimists had twice as many infectious diseases and made twice as many trips to the doctor as the optimists. Later, Martin Seligman of the University of Pennsylvania and two of his colleagues, using interviews and blood tests, found that optimists have better immune activity than pessimists." To read more go to http://www.thisisawar.com/HealthOptimism.htm

Would you agree that it's not easy to stay optimistic?

All of us have been to a church service, sales seminar, or a motivational seminar that excited us for a short while. Then the reality of credit card bills, murders, company layoff's, and terrorism would bring you down just as easily as you were pumped up. So what can you do?

Step 1 - DECIDE that despite all obstacles you will CHOOSE to be optimistic.

Almost nobody chooses or decides to be optimistic. The decision is half the battle.

Let's take for example, the idea of dealing with relationships and people. If you choose to see others as loving, emotional people who all want to be loved you will find no reason to get jealous, or develop hatred because someone is different or "better" than you. I choose to look at all people in a loving way and it has allowed me to have no fear of anyone, helped my ability to work others and develop relationships.

Now I could have chosen to think all people were selfish, greedy, and found ways to hate others just as easily. But can you think of one good thing that would ever come out of hating another human being?

Step 2 - Learn what other successful people have done.

Read stories about how others have persevered in circumstances much worse than many of have ever seen. After you read enough you will realize that if they can do it you can too.

I also recommend reading about topics you are interested. Specialized topics like improving leadership skills, creating a mail order business, how to be a better parent, or anything. By learning more ways that things can be done your confidence will rise immensely.

Step 3 - Take ACTION by asking yourself "how can I improve my life".
If you take no action you will get no results - period. Action can be as simple as a single thought. Start thinking about what you've always dreamed about doing but never tried or thought possible. Start asking yourself how it can be accomplished and constantly think of possible solutions.

Don't kid yourself, most of us aren't successful because we have not asked "how can I do this" enough times and have not made a decision to take action. If you ask yourself how over and over you will come up with a solution. That is the technique I used to overcome psoriasis. I asked myself at least 50,000 times "how can I beat this disease which controls my life?" and I came up with many ideas. Most did not work but I eventually found a combination that changed my life forever.

Don't get caught up in super-human efforts but rather look for smaller, incremental improvements that you can do day after day. Action is the key that will increase your confidence.

Does this seem too simple? It should because it's very simple. However, the difficult thing is making the decision to have the discipline to persevere. Take is from Lance Armstrong:

"To win the Tour I had to be willing to ride when no one else would ride."


About the Author
Michael Hrenko is the founder of ePsoriasis, LLC. The company specializes in teaching how he and others have overcome psoriasis and eczema without a doctor, prescriptions, expensive treatments, and difficult fasting diets. Claim your free copy of The Lazy Person's Guide to Beating Psoriasis at http://www.epsoriasis.net/promotion.htm as a one-time-only promotion. (c) Copyright 2005, ePsoriasis, LLC