We all have a friend or acquaintance that we try and avoid because they're always negative.

It can almost be entertaining how some can spin a positive-negative right in front of your eyes.

I'm not an outwardly negative person, but I still catch myself on a daily basis getting into negative thought patterns.

Whether it's in response to the situations that surround me or my own self-loathing, it seems like a constant battle to avoid negative patterns.

Because of that, I've researched this topic quite a bit.

Thoughts lead to actions.

Actions lead to growth.

Growth leads to freedom.

If we can control our thoughts, we can control our actions. If we can control our actions, we'll be able to make daily progress towards our goals. If we make daily progress towards our goals, we're creating a new "me" all along the way. This is changing our future.

These negative patterns hurt our ability to perform at our job, to overcome false monetary beliefs, and impair our overall decision-making.

I knew for me personally, I needed to eliminate my negative patterns to achieve what I wanted to achieve.

In researching, I found it interesting that we're actually wired for negativity. Those negative patterns aren't necessarily a bug, but a feature. They help you not make mistakes a second time. But, despite that, it doesn't change how destructive they can be.

Negative thought patterns can actually harm your brain, making you more likely to get dementia, Alzheimer’s, and other similar diseases.

Most of the time we're reacting to these thoughts. We try and control them after they've entered our heads.

What ends up happening with this is we focus intently on making that "bad" thought leave, which actually reinforces that it's there.

There is plenty of research that shows that when we focus on negative thoughts, those thoughts seem to reinforce and repeat more often. This is known as rumination.

Between the looping nature of negative thoughts and the actual physical harm it's causing you, I've been personally motivated to limit the negativity from my life.

So what can we do?

1. Acknowledge your negative patterns (mindfulness). This is always the first step. Admit you'd like to change them.

2. Change your surroundings. Sometimes it's the people you're around or places you go. Change those when possible.

3. Meditate. When I think of meditation I now always think about Ron Swanson in Parks & Rec. Clearing your mind is an essential part of replacing those negative thoughts.

4. Letting go of unhealthy expectations. Perfection is not attainable, quit trying to get there.

5. Keep moving. When we have downtime we reinforce the negative pattern. If you're feeling down, stay active. Do something physical. Upbeat music.

6. Practice Gratitude. Gratitude is just reflecting on the positive things in your life. It's not reframing, it's just acknowledging.

With all of this, you need to build these as habits. If we only do the above practices part-time, it will be hard to completely retrain yourself.

You need to truly commit to it.

The above options rewire your brain. Habits rewire your daily activity.

Podcast: Emergency Funds

How much should you keep in your emergency fund? In this week's SHORTS episode, I try and answer that question.

25: SHORTS: How much should my emergency fund be?

Question of the week

How do you combat your negative thought patterns?