"We are born with the potential of optimism and resilience," Selk said.

"Human beings are made up of thoughts, feelings and actions. Thoughts control our feelings and behaviors.

We are prisoners of ideas.

We can choose our own way of thinking and choose all our life experiences in this way.

Optimism can bring a better and longer life.

In 1860s, Martin Seligman used personality questionnaire to classify patients in Mayo Clinic (an American Hospital) into optimists and pessimists.

30 years later, he traced these patients and found that the chances of optimism were 19% higher than those of pessimists.

Is this enough for you to believe that training yourself to be an optimist is worth it? If so, I will tell you how to start:

Selk believes that human nature will focus our attention on Problems and dangers. This should be the survival mechanism left behind by human evolution in order to avoid being prey to wild animals.

So it is very important to consciously change this idea.

He suggests, "whenever you find yourself focusing on problems or self doubt, ask yourself:" what can I do to change the status quo? "

"Many of us will feel more confident and better at the time of encouragement," Selk said.

"To be an excellent person requires you to observe, evaluate, and yourself.

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He thought, therefore, we need to think about people, mentors, or people who have enlightened us in the past.

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If you are facing a tough one

Ask yourself what advice the person will give you and how he or she will deal with the challenge.

"Ask yourself:" what would he do if he had to finish two reports in 24 hours? "Selk said.

"Remind yourself to use the calendar to complete this self image training every day," Selk advices.

"This simple mental training can greatly improve your success rate and make you feel good."

In order to be as effective as possible, the more specific your mental imagery training is, the better you can imagine where you are and what you have done in this successful future.

"This way can improve the abstract life plan to the real vision that can affect your self and future thoughts."

When I finish some tasks, I will pat myself to show encouragement.

You don't have to be exactly like me. You just need to "form your own habits in time," Selk said.

Don't wait until you finish a big project or finish the exhibition successfully.

You need to find yourself a little bit of achievement in time.

"It takes a few seconds every day to ask yourself, 'where am I doing very well today?" Selk said.