The ability to overcome difficulties and failure is a crucial element for any business, and to do so, it’s important to be able to stay positive in the face of adversity, according to a recent article from Entrepreneur.com. The article, “How to Train Your Brain to Stay Positive,” explains that humans tend to see the negative in situations more than the positive. This isn’t always a bad thing, but it’s best to try to even out the balance. Here are three tips to help you train your brain to focus on the positive:

1. Express gratitude. Once a week, take a few minutes to jot down a few things you’re thankful for. Thinking about the good will help balance out the bias towards the negative that naturally occurs within your brain.
2. Repeat positive affirmations. Just like in advertising, the more you hear a message, the more likely you are to believe it. The same pertains to messages about who you are and what you are capable of accomplishing. Pick two or three affirmations dealing with your present situation and goals and repeat them with conviction each morning.
3. Challenge negative thoughts. If you continue to dwell on a negative thought, it will likely become pervasive. Instead, try to distance yourself from negative thoughts and think of them as something you can observe and deconstruct. Then, challenge negative thoughts that are unfairly self-deprecating. Turn a negative thought like “I’m a failure,” into something beneficial like, “I worked really hard but I didn’t account for a quirk of the market, so I’m disappointed, but now I’m going to try again with new information.”

Click here to read the entire article from Entrepreneur.com.