I know what you’re thinking.

Most people have this idea that being a positive person means having a relentlessly sunny disposition. If you’re positive you wake up in the morning, the birds are chirping, your don’t have bed head, and your coffee pours itself. Wow!

There is this perspective that being a positive person means never having a bad day. You have no problems or issues in your life. You fly high with a natural energy 24/7. And that coffee that poured itself? You actually don’t need it because you feel great all the time.

And with this preconceived notion I have to say: I whole-heartedly disagree.

Being a positive person means that even though you have bad days, you’ve learned to find the small redeeming moments in them. Sometimes means that you accept the challenges of life because you’ve learned to see the opportunity in the struggle. Being a positive person is more about having the ability to enjoy the little things in life, like when all the lights are green for you that morning or a stranger smiles at you.

Positivity isn’t about perfection – you don’t have to be perfect! You don’t have to be exuding joy and smiling all the time to see yourself as a genuinely positive person. It’s all about your focus. What does your energy and attention go towards? Does it tend towards the hard parts of life, or mostly the good stuff (big or small)?

You can’t always have good days. The more you dwell on what’s happened, the more you will stay stuck where you are. Choose to move forward and redeem the day. Now you are a positive person!

Lets pretend that you’ve been looking forward to seeing your friend all week, and at the last minute she bails on you, AGAIN. Instead of telling her where to go (although tempting), you wish her a good evening. You spend the rest of the evening enjoying yourself despite what happened. You think to yourself “maybe things turned out for the best, I had a way better night by myself anyways”. Good job girl because you are totally being positive!

Lets think about those mornings when you get up and you look at yourself and you’re just feeling really off, so you look in the mirror and you’re like NOPE. But you take a shower and you pull yourself together and you have that extra dose of caffeine because you are gonna CEASE THE DAY DAMMIT. I want to personally congratulate you on being positive.

It doesn’t always come naturally, or easily. A positive lifestyle is something to work at. Don’t let that discourage you! And if you get discouraged, don’t write yourself off as defectively flawed and miserable. Decide to make little changes, and pat yourself on the back for the little positive things you think and do because dammit, those are awesome.