But I joke! Being positive is not just the end result, but a means to an end: It’s just EASIER to be positive and you’ll feel better doing it. We get caught up in the now, and it’s easy to pick up on negativity (don’t watch TV or read the paper or check out blogs!), but just as it’s easier to smile than to frown (less work involved), it’s simply easier to be positive.

It requires zero energy and it might just give you some!

In fact, among elite athletes, having a pessimistic outlook on life impacts how you do after an adversity, compared to an athlete who is an optimist. This means that if all you do is put two different people – one an optimist and one a pessimist – in the same situation, after they both faced the same setback, the optimist will get a better time the second time around, and the pessimist will perform worse. This famous experiment was done with swimmers from the U.S. Olympic program, including Matt Biondi. More about the experiment, and what we can do, is chronicled in the book “Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life” by noted University of Pennsylvania psychologist Martin Seligman.

While developing an optimistic perspective helps lead to substantial improvement, research shows that just getting the negative thoughts out of the way, even temporarily, can help improve critical thinking, creativity, and even how you respond to challenges. This simple skillset is even part of the advanced resilience training that the army and corporations are now using. The book “Resilience Factor” by Drs Martin Seligman and Karen Reivich covers this too.

On http://www.happier.com, we have tools to help people stop being negative. The tools are things you can do online and they help develop optimism — even among pessimists — and reduce negativity. We’ve developed them by working with leading psychologists. One thing that’s important to point out is that the science shows us we have to be realistic optimists for this to make a difference. This means that just pretending everything is great and nothing will go wrong won’t help, and in fact, it isn’t a healthy perspective.

Being less negative is healthy, helps us meet goals, and is backed by science. But it’s hard work!