Positive thinking is important to your business success, because the opposite, negative thinking, can sabotage your business very quickly. If you are dealing with negativity from others, within yourself, or have associates suffering from negative thinking, it can have a huge impact. The good news is, you can learn the power of positive thinking to protect yourself and move beyond the negativity.

"Attitude isn't everything, but it is the main thing. Many people fail because they don't have the right attitude. All things being equal, two people standing side by side, the person with the great attitude will win every time. And it's a choice." - John C. Maxwell

We can experience negative thinking all around us: friends, family, business associates. But for anyone starting their own business or in the network marketing industry, it is inevitable that you have or will experience negative thinking from other at some point.

So what are some ways to protect yourself?

• Avoid negative thinkers when possible - hang out with people with good attitudes.
• Realize it is their problem - not yours
• Recognize that it is just a matter of differing perceptions

I can almost guarantee that if you tell a negative thinker that they are being negative, the will tell you that they are not negative, they are just a "realist". We can change our thinking, but we can not change the thinking of others. It is up to them to recognize how negative thinking is effecting them and decide to change. It is not your problem.

Anyone in network marketing has probably been told to approach their friends and family about their business opportunity. The problem with this is, unless you have a lot of entrepreneurial people in your environment, you will probably get bombarded with a lot of negative thinking that can tear you down.

The "old school" idea that everyone is your prospect sets you up for a lot of rejection and negative thinking that can destroy your confidence and ultimately your business. It is far more affective to attract like-minded people to you, than chase people who have no interest.

Sure, let those around you know about your new business. They may become your customers or bring you referrals - if you don't hound them! But if you focus your time and energy on attracting people who are actually searching for what you have to offer you will have a lot less rejection and expose yourself to much less negative thinking.

For anyone wanting to learn how to attract people to you, or improve your skills in interNETwork Marketing, i highly recommend reading Ann Sieg's free ebook, The 7 Great Lies of Network Marketing and tapping into the free membership of Renegade University to see what it is all about. If you decide that you like the idea of using the power of the internet and attracting people to you instead of chasing them, for a mere $67 you can purchase the Renegade Marketer Ebook and have access to a wealth of information and resources in the back office of the Renegade System at no additional cost. You'll not only learn how to attract people to you, but how to cover your marketing expenses and even add an additional income stream through affiliate marketing to fuel your primary business.

Building a home business, network marketing or direct sales business can be difficult when you don't have the support of your spouse. When you also have to deal with downright negativity toward your business is can extremely challenging, and can even de-rail your business.

There are really two approaches that can be effective in dealing with negative thinking from your spouse and it depends on your situation which approach will be more effective.

Approach Number One

• Share your business plan and goals
• Let him/her see you have a real business
• Let them know that you are building your business for the benefit of the family
• Involve them in your business, if possible

For some people, getting their spouses involved and showing them that they have the same long-term goals, that their home business is a real business, and that it will ultimately benefit the family, will help eleviate the negative thinking. But for others, this approach doesn't work. So if you find this just seems to cause more conflict and negative thinking from your spouse, you probably want to go with approach number two.

Approach Number Two

• Don't discuss your business if it causes conflict, and show them with results
• Designate business time and family time and try to work on your business as much as possible when he/she is involved with other activitiesolve them in your business, if possible

• Recognize accomplishments
• Announce successes on team calls or team websites
• Point out areas of expertise
• Send a personalize card
• Help team members set achievable goals, benchmarks and the steps to reach them
• Stop negativity in an individual before it spreads to the team

• Read something positive or uplifting every day
• Start your day off with something positive
• Set challenging, but achieveable goals
• Review your goals and accomplishments so far, leading to those goals
• Celebrate the small accomplishments as well as the big ones
• Recognize that everyone has challenges, many far worse than your own
• Look at how you can use set-backs as a learning experience to propel you forward
• Focus on the actions and activities you can do to solve the problem
• Become part of a mastermind group

The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life.

Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company... a church... a home.

The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude... I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it.

And so it is with you... we are in charge of our attitudes

Wendy Mills conducted an hour webinar training on 6/9/2008 that was recorded and is available on The WorkTeam secure training area, If you have access to the site, log in and go to the Call Outline page or the Recorded Webinars page. If you don't have access and would like more information, contact Wendy Mills.