Don’t Follow the Unhappy Path

‘Negative Nelly.’

‘Eeyore.’

Have you met someone who might fit this description? Everyone has an off-day now and again, but some people just seem glued to an unhappy path. They seem hell bent on self-destruction, and have plenty of bad habits to help them along.

To avoid going along this path, here are a few things to watch out for:

Worrying about things you can’t change. Let’s face it: there are plenty of things out there that you can control, but there are also plenty of things you can’t. Make sure you know the difference between the two. Need a visual reminder? Check out the Serenity Prayer on Pinterest.

Setting unattainable goals. Everyone should have goals, but we also have to be smart about what goals we set. Picking a goal we know we will never accomplish is just setting ourselves up for failure.

Not exercising or eating an unhealthy diet. If you’re feeling bad, it’s hard to start the day with a smile, and an unhealthy lifestyle often means a lot of feeling bad.

Becoming your own self-fulfilling prophecy. One old saying is: ‘hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.’ While being prepared is a good thing, make sure you’re not just greenlighting future failure. If you expect things to go badly all the time, they most likely will.

If you’re already traveling along an unhealthy path, it can be difficult to turn around. It’s not impossible though. Take a realistic look at your life and you’ll often see things are not as bad as they seem. Even Eeyore has been known to smile once in a while.