How to Work on Your Negative Traits: 51+ Proven Ways

Negative traits can be deadly for you. It can hamper your career and also your personal life to a great extent. It is very important to work on all your negative traits and turn them into positive ones.

Here are a few tips to work on your negative traits.

Avoid pessimism. You become toxic to yourself when you think about anything negative. Being pessimistic allows you to think about all the negative traits and make your day dull and gloomy. It also makes you think that the ship will sink but it didn’t even start to sail. Try to think positively, focus, and motivate yourself by reading some inspirational stories.

Avoid procrastination. It often happens that we find this habit to be guilty. We feel lazy and keep on pushing the task to another day thinking of the faraway deadline. This results in poor quality of work, anxiety attacks. So, do not let the pile of work grow bigger, do it when you have to.  

Being oversensitive. Do not think much of what people say and take their words by heart. Also do not try to overanalyze them. Do not be a cry baby, take things sportingly. People often don’t like to work with such a trait.

Don’t be judgemental. Harming a person’s self-esteem will lead to a waste of time and energy. Continuously gawking at others’ lives rather than bettering your life is the stupidest thing one can do. So, it is advisable to focus on your goals and plan out what is to be done.

Don’t be a people pleaser. It is okay if nobody likes you. But it is not okay to change your entire personality to make people fall for you.

Do not change your habits in order to please other people, it is definitely a red flag that needs to be undone. You need to accept reality as you can’t make everyone happy. You have to accept that it’s okay not to be appreciated by everyone.

Being the hulk. A sudden reaction to a situation can lead you to nowhere, especially when it’s anger. Try to control your anger, look at the situation from a different perspective then it would help your mind to calm down.

Use meditation techniques to control your anger. When you are angry try to put yourself in the shoes of the other person.

Being the vampire. Do not be dependent on other people. It is true that you value those who are there beside you at your low times, still, you need to be independent. Do not expect people would be there for you if you have also been there for them. Find your own strength and deal with your situations.

Being the martyr. You might take all the load that one faces and people depend on you in many ways.

It seems happy to help others, but you also wish secretly if someone would be there to share your workload and be there for you when you need help. So, it’s better to assign work to people who are good at what they do.

Being the judge. You might be too judgemental when it comes to a situation. You tend to find out all the flaws at the first go, so people try to avoid your company as many of them are afraid to face the reality.

This is in fact a good trait but try to balance it. Also, try to point out the good things so that people around you would feel nice and won’t be afraid of you.

Being the miser. You can be the one who tends to calculate all budgets, but it does make people turn off as people around you might not have the same values and experiences as you do. So, try not to impose your choices, allow people to make their own choices. You can also emit your values by suggesting this might help you gain appreciation and respect.

Being a professor. There might be people who always have a knack for information. Though it might be tiring at times, even when people don’t want any information regarding a topic.

Being intelligent and informative is good but you also need to have some respect for it. Don’t be too easy-going with your knowledge. You can help others with your advice when it is required or asked. 

Being the soothsayer. You would probably be the first one to give some ideas that too looking at the negative side of the situation.

Try to look at the positive side too, as a situation consists of both the good and the bad traits. People often find it irritating when you look on the dark side instead of the bright side.

Being the vanishing one. It can be often said that you cannot be relied on. People think you are lazy, a procrastinator, selfish, or committing to something and later backing it off.

Though you want to help you have too much on your plate. So, while backing off give a strong and logical explanation, so that it won’t be a problem while taking the lead afterward.

Visualize your ideal self. Ask yourself what are qualities that you want to possess and what you don’t. Accordingly, plan your personality goals so that you can see the ideal self of yourself that you truly want.

Find people who inspire you. Try to find out a reason why you admire certain people. There can be a possibility of having the same personalities and trying to imbibe in yourself. Try reading their autobiographies or watch some of their videos to keep you motivated and focused.

 Turn your negatives into positives. Negative traits do contain some of the positivities when looked at deeply. Try to preserve the positive side and minimize the negative trait.   

Choose one trait to focus on first. Do not try to focus on multiple traits at the first go. Try looking at the qualities one by one. It would increase your clarity towards a certain trait and will keep you focused. 

Create a plan. There may be certain traits that make you feel low, anxious so try to make some plans on changing those qualities. If you want to get rid of your shyness you need to greet one new person every day. If you want to stop procrastinating then you need to break your projects into smaller pieces.

Focus on a goal. Look at the positive side of the goal rather than thinking about the negative side. Having a goal in making a change keeps you motivated and grounded. Try writing down all the accomplishments that have to be made.

Be aware of your behavior. Pay heed to your actions, behaviors, and thoughts. Observe which situation triggers you the most and try new strategies to deal with it.

Take deep breaths in order to face the situation, especially when you are not ready for that situation. Establish self-awareness and practice it for a week or two.

Use affirmations. Try to trick your brain by thinking that the work is already done, or you have achieved the desired goal.

This approach is called fake it until you make it. This approach is very effective, so make sure you come up with some new affirmations and practice them daily.

Practice your new behaviors. In order to change your behavior and imbibe new behavior, you need to be consistent and keep going with your new behavior. Practice your conversational skills like going for lunch with your co-workers or asking for some advice from your friends, family.

Be patient. It can be likely to take months to avoid your negative qualities and imbibing new ones, for that you need to be patient enough. All you need to do is be consistent and honest with yourself. Keep a mindset of developing new qualities and also attaining your goals.

Figure out how negative traits affect life. Try to write down the reasons why you dislike that trait, and write the ways you want to create a positive impact. While creating a list, be specific about your negative qualities, you can also write the pros and cons so that you will be able to see how the quality is affecting your life.

Ask for an outside opinion. Ask someone who you trust from your family member or your friend circle if you are confused about your negative traits.  An opinion would help you be on the track, you may be being hard on yourself or an undesirable quality is felt by other people but you are unaware of it.

Examine which aspect of the personality bothers you. Do not try to fool yourself. Be honest with yourself and try to observe the negative traits carefully that act as a hindrance to the life that you want to live. Try to cut off those negative traits that create trouble, damage a relationship, etc.

Choose positive thoughts over negative ones. Fake it until you make it. When you think of something bad, your attitude changes to all the negativity in life. This fake message would stimulate your brain and eventually, you will feel happy. So, try to control your mind by pretending that you are happy.  Think about your affirmations, drink plenty of water, etc this would lead you to a successful life.

Stop being a victim. Don’t try to play a victim in your life. This proves that you are running away from your responsibilities. Be responsible enough to deal with the wrong decisions and bad habits in life. The wrong decisions are the best lessons in life, those decisions help us grow in life. It’s not about what has happened to you, it is about what you choose to become.

Stop comparing. You would feel genuinely happy when you stop comparing yourself with other people. The worst thing to do in life is to compare yourself with others. Every life has its own time and space, have patience and wait for that right time to come. Every life is unique, so stop comparing it with others and getting stressed out and anxious.

Count your blessings. Whenever you are feeling low by thinking that the negative force is trying to empower you, do count your blessings that you are grateful for.

You need to make your mind think about the positive side of any given situation, for that you need to train your mind. It might be difficult in the first go, but it will definitely get better.

Change the perspective. Take a look at the situation from a different perspective. This would help your mind to think in many other different ways, it would broaden your mind, make you more mature to deal with situations.

Also, do have a challenging attitude towards situations when things are not going according to your plan. 

Believe in yourself. Do have faith in yourself and believe in yourself that you can. If you have that faith, nothing can stop you from achieving anything. Believe in what you desire and want to achieve in the near future.

If you do not believe in yourself you would be suffering from self-doubt and self-belief which would act as a hindrance in achieving what you desire to.

Avoid bad company. If you are often surrounded by negative people you will have an impact on your life. So, surround yourself with positive people in order to have a positive impact in life.

You can also watch motivational videos or read books or connect to some positive groups. It would give more value to your life. 

Think of a changed life. Fix your mind and think about some positive situations, it would change your attitude towards life.

By positive thinking you will be happy and successful, you will realize by changing your attitude you can deal with situations more efficiently. You become a better person.

Shine your light on your dark side. Emotions like anger, self-doubt, mindlessness, anxiety aren’t that uncomfortable.

As anxiety helps us stay focused, mindlessness helps us make better decisions, anger leads to creativity, self-doubt improves the quality of performance. So, it’s seen that not all negative traits are bad, it can also have a good impact in life.

Laughing at life’s lemons. Try to make the best use of your bad traits. As Cliff Cash being a comedian, he used to suffer from attention disorder. So, he made the best use of that negative trait by becoming a comedian, later he got all the fame by showing off his negative trait as a profession.

Balance your bad side. Many of us have a bad side in our personalities. But you need to balance it quite efficiently. Like the ego, it often leads to foolish risk-taking, doing anything of self-validating, etc. So, this trait can be dealt with by pinpointing the trait.

Thinking about life without ego would be dull and at the same time realize the fact that if you are unable to ask for what you want then you would not become the person you want to be. 

Be distracted. Focus and distraction go hand in hand. Success does come when you are focused. But when you are distracted you are more open to new pieces of information that would make you think out of the box.  This can lead to new innovations and insights.

Being lazy. People who are lazy do things differently and tactfully as they are more intelligent and diligent. They often try to develop new, smarter strategies in dealing with a certain situation or task. They are more productive than other people. Hence this negative quality can be used as a positive trait.

Negative mindset. It might seem ironic but a negative mindset does reap positive success. There was a study of which one is more efficient: strategic optimism or defensive pessimism.

It was seen that booty gives the same outputs. Strategic optimism was seen to have taken things at a go but defensive pessimism took anxiety as motivation.

Be selfish. It often helps to eliminate stress. Being selfish helps us to take better care of ourselves both mentally and physically. It isn’t good that you always need self-validation when it comes to being helpful and martyr-like, as it often leads to being anxious and resentful which isn’t worth it. 

Be sensitive. It is a valuable skill if you can put yourself in someone else’s shoes.   Being sensitive is also related to being a diplomat.

You might be criticized for taking things personally or having a difficult time dealing with criticism, but you are the most sympathetic person who does care about other people.

Be messy. It is observed that being messy or living in the clutter is an indication of being highly creative and intelligent. On the right side of the brain activity, people are creative and on the left side of the brain, people are more neat freaks.

Be a bit shy. Shy people are more introverted. They are often uncomfortable among a group of people, but they are often reflective and ones who come up with great solutions. They like to work but they don’t like praise. They are productive, creative, etc.

Be neurotic. You might be a person who can’t let things go, you might think about a situation over and over. This leads to being neurotic, it might seem to be a flaw but it also has a positive impact as you remain focused and preserve the task until you achieve it. Such people are consistent and detail-oriented.

We often judge a person when it comes to personality. In the first go, we make so many assumptions while on the other side it might not be true so we wait eagerly for the next meet to confirm our assumptions. But this is not always true as a character is a paradox that often comes out during an uncommon situation.

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