I would not consider myself a ‘morning person’ – I love how comfy my bed is, I enjoy sleeping in (later than I should) and I prefer a slow steady start to my day (they do say slow and steady wins the race so perhaps I’m onto something). I’m not a grouch in the morning – I’m just slow to get started.
I take my time getting up, I like to sip slowly on my coffee or tea and gear up for the day. I really am the tortoise as opposed to the hare who is busting with energy ready to take on the day. There is one thing that I don’t skip in my long, drawn out morning routine and it’s all about one small positive thought in the morning.
One of my slow morning rituals is to set an intention for the day. I usually use this time to remind myself to take on a positive attitude with me throughout the day. For me, each morning is a new beginning to the whole day and I like to start out on the right foot and in a positive way. Positive thinking and positive thoughts are one of the easiest, simplest, and just all around best ways to boost your mood and inject more happiness into your life.
Positive thinking isn’t just a nice thought – it’s scientifically tested! This study was published in March 2016 in the Journal of Behaviour Research and Therapy and results showed groups of people visualizing positive images/outcomes reported greater happiness, restfulness and decreased anxiety.
In this Article…
The Benefits of One Small Positive Thought in the Morning
One small positive thought in the morning really has the power to change your whole day. Starting your day off with the right attitude can be the best thing to brighten your whole life – it can make you feel happier, improve your quality of life and help you achieve the goals you’ve set for yourself.
The only thing you really have control over in life is yourself. How you choose to feel, choose to act, choose to react. Life can be difficult, there will be challenges and we cannot control what challenges or difficulties we may face but we can choose how we face them. There was a long period of time negative thoughts seemed to control my life – worry about the future and stress about the past loomed in my mind most of the time in my day. I had to take positive action to change this!
I needed to replace my negative thoughts with positive ones as negative thinking was really dragging me down each day. It cast a dark cloud over the rest of the day and made it difficult to feel motivated or even happy. I knew I needed to make a change and I needed to do it as the first step of any given day!
The morning can feel like the most important time of day – its a reset – a brand new day; a fresh start. Starting off with a good mood puts you on the right track for the rest of the day. The morning was the absolute best time to make a change to start with positive intention, first thing.
From then on, I tried to be more conscious about my thoughts in the morning. Being intentional and present with what I first thought in the morning – I quickly realized the first thoughts were usually worry about all the things I had to get done or stupid mistakes I made the day before. What a terrible way to wake up! My first change was simple: when I wake up I will tell myself ‘today will be the most beautiful day of your life!’ – yes, it was cheesy but it worked! It transformed my thinking to think about and focus on the positive instead of the negative.
This new start to the day and new way of thinking gave me something else to focus on and think about other than negativity! It gave me a positive and brighter outlook on life, that this day was going to be a great day! From then on before going to sleep, I chose positive quotes, my ‘good morning’ to me quotes that would give me a positive head start the next day.
The energy you put out into the world really finds its way back to you – I started to have a more positive mindset. I saw the beautiful world that is out there with each new morning. Instead of seeing the dread in my to-do list or the pain in past mistakes – I saw what there is to be thankful for or the great things that I could accomplish that day.
Similarly to how negative thoughts clouded my whole day, positive thoughts lit up my entire day. Positive thinking, positive affirmations, and just an overall positive attitude became powerful tools for me to meet the challenge of each day with. I see the positive results that one small positive thought in the morning has and I wanted to share it with you too!
Live a positive life, a happy life by setting yourself up for it! I’ve collected all sorts of different quotes to get you started with your very own “one small positive thought in the morning ritual” – motivational quotes, inspirational quotes, encouraging quotes, any and all of the quotes I felt were a really positive way to start your day! I encourage you to read through and select a few of your favourites to hold onto for each morning. Start your day off each early morning with a breath of positivity!
So, what is a good thought for a morning? Or what is one positive thought to start the day?
If you’d like some inspiration – I’ve separated the quotes into different themes so you can really narrow down which one small positive thought in the morning you’d like to start with!
One Small Positive Thought in the Morning Quotes
Choosing Happiness
We will not be happy 100%, all of the time – it’s just part of the human experience. We experience a wide range of emotions and experiencing the negative ones like stress, worry, sadness, pain allow us to appreciate the positive emotions even more. Even though there are times to be sad or stressed, we don’t have to remain this way. We can choose to see the positive in our situations, we can choose happiness. These one small positive thought in the morning quotes are all about that – choosing positivity, choosing happiness, choosing to seek the light through life’s adversities.
If you need a reminder to look for happiness and positivity, I hope these quotes will do it for you!
- “Wherever you go, no matter what the weather, always bring your own sunshine.” – Anthony J. D’Angelo
- “Happiness is a choice, not a result. Nothing will make you happy until you choose to be happy.” – Ralph Marston
- “Happiness is always there. You just have to choose to see it. There’s no point dwelling in the dark and ignoring the light of the stars.” – Carrie Hope Fletcher
- “Happiness in your heart is directly proportional to the quality of thoughts in your mind.” – Asma Naqi
- “Being happy never goes out of style.” – Lilly Pulitzer
- “When you have a choice, choose happy!” – Pancho Barnes
- “The purpose of our lives is to be happy.” – Dalai Lama
- “Be happy about your own life and you’ll be amazed at just how much more beautiful you’ll find it to be.” – TemitOpe Ibrahim
- “Happiness is a choice that requires effort at times.” – Aeschylus
- “Happiness is a way of travel not a destination.” – Roy M. Goodman
- “Every day we have plenty of opportunities to get angry, stressed or offended. But, what you’re doing when you indulge these negative emotions is giving something outside yourself power over your happiness. You can choose to not let little things upset you.” – Joel Osteen
- “Our happiness or our unhappiness depends far more on the way we meet the events of life than on the nature of those events themselves.” – Wilhelm von Humboldt
- “If you smile when you are alone, then you really mean it.” – Andy Rooney
- “Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.” – Winston Churchill
- “I don’t have to chase extraordinary moments to find happiness – it’s right in front of me if I’m paying attention and practicing gratitude.” – Brene Brown
Being Grateful
Gratitude is a powerful mindset tool, it can take some practice and require constant effort to remind yourself to practice gratitude but it is well worth it. We often put emphasis on what’s next – we plan, we schedule, we look forward to the future. It’s not a bad thing, but it can be when we also lose focus on the present.
We may start to only focus on the future – I’ll be happy when I achieve this next goal, I’ll be happy when I purchase this next thing. We need to also remember to be happy and thankful for where we are right now, what we have right now. The more we focus on gratitude for the things we currently have, the more joy and happiness we can unlock.
These quotes are all about reminding ourselves to be grateful and acknowledging all of the good we already have!
- “Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance.” – Eckhart Tolle
- “I am happy because I’m grateful. I choose to be grateful. That gratitude allows me to be happy.” – Will Arnett
- “Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.” – Robert Brault
- “When it comes to life the critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude.” – G.K. Chesterton
- “When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive – to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love – then make that day count!” – Steve Maraboli
- “Be present in all things and thankful for all things.” – Maya Angelou
- “The more that we feel grateful in our lives, the more joy and fulfillment we’re able to feel.” – Miranda Anderson
- “Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough.” – Oprah Winfrey
- “If a fellow isn’t thankful for what he’s got, he isn’t likely to be thankful for what he’s going to get.” – Frank A. Clark
- “The more you are grateful for what you have, the more you will have to be grateful for.” – Zig Ziglar
- “Gratitude turns what we have into enough.” – Aesop
- “Happiness isn’t what you find at the end of the road. It’s right here. Right now.” – Unknown
- “If you are not content today, there is nothing you can buy tomorrow to change that.” – Joshua Becker
- “Things turn out best for people who make the best out of the way things turn out.” – John Wooden
- “Some people grumble that roses have thorns: I am grateful that thorns have roses.” – Alphose Karr
Mood Boosters
Sometimes we feel down, maybe for no reason at all. Sometimes just gloomy weather gets me down or I’m just feeling tired. These quotes are a quick mood boost – that the down times don’t last, that happiness is always around.
- “When you focus on the rainbow, you don’t mind the rain.” – Unknown
- “Let your smile change the world, but don’t let the world change your smile.” – Connor Franta
- “Be yourself, everyone else is already taken.” – Oscar Wilde
- “Sometimes the bad things that happen in our lives put us directly on the path to the best things that will ever happen to us.” – Nicole Reed
- “The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.” – Dolly Parton
- “It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.” – Aristotle
- “Tough times never last, but tough people do.” – Robert H. Schuller
- “For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
- “There is no path to happiness: happiness is the path” – Buddha
- “A problem is a chance for you to do your best.” – Duke Ellington
- “There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.” – Beverly Sills
- “Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
Believing in Possibility
There are lots of times I don’t go for something simply because I think I might fail, I think a lot of us might think this way, I don’t think anyone ‘likes’ to be bad at things. But, I quickly realized that not even trying for fear of failure was closing the door on so many opportunities to just experience something new. We don’t need to be good at something for it to be worth doing.
A quick affirmation I remind myself of often is “you are capable (and even if you’re not at least you tried :))”. Life became more fun, more interesting when I was willing to try. I hope these quotes inspire you to try – to believe in possibility and all you could accomplish!
- “What if I fall?” “Oh, by my darling, what if you fly?” – Erin Hanson
- “Wherever life plants you, bloom with grace.” – Unknown
- “You can’t stop the waves but you can learn to surf.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
- “An arrow can only be shot by pulling it backward. So when life is dragging you back with difficulties, it means that it’s going to launch you into something great.” – Paulo Coelho
- “You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.” – C.S. Lewis
- “Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.” – Roald Dahl
- “A winner is a dreamer who never gave up.” – Nelson Mandela
- “Just when the caterpillar thought the world was ending, it turned into a butterfly.” – Proverb
- “What you believe yourself to be, you are.” – Claude M. Bristol
- “Courage doesn’t mean you don’t get afraid. Courage means you don’t let fear stop you.” – Bethany Hamilton
- “Nothing is impossible, the word itself says ‘I’m possible!’” – Audrey Hepburn
- “The future depends on what you do today.” – Mahatma Gandhi
- “The greatest thing in this world is not so much where we stand as in what direction we are moving.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Feeling Inspired
Exactly as the title says – I want you to feel inspired. I hope these one small positive thought in the morning quotes fill you with the feeling that you are able, that you can – any positive feeling at all! Inspire you to do, to create, to sing, to dance, to do whatever you want! 🙂
- “If you are always trying to be normal, you will never know how amazing you can be.” – Maya Angelou
- “One moment can change a day, one day can change a life and one life can change the world.” – Buddha
- “You’re braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.” – A.A. Milne (Christopher Robin)
- “It is often the small steps, not the giant leaps, that bring about the most lasting change.” – HRM Queen Elizabeth II
- “To win big, you sometimes have to take big risks.” – Bill Gates
- “A boat is safe in the harbor. But, this is not the purpose of a boat.” – Paulo Coelho
- “Always believe something wonderful is about to happen.” – Unknown
- “To be a champ you have to believe in yourself when no one else will.” – Sugar Ray Robinson
- “Success is only meaningful and enjoyable if it feels like your own.” – Michelle Obama
- “I’m not telling you it’s going to be easy, I’m telling you it’s going to be worth it.” – Art Williams
- “When your intention is clear, so is the way.” – Alan Cohen
- “Don’t worry about failures, worry about the chances you miss when you don’t even try.” – Jack Canfield
Being Present
Presence is a huge thing I remind myself of often – the only ‘time’ you can take any action and create change is right now – the past is gone and the future isn’t here yet. So, when we are present in the here and now – that is living! Presence goes hand in hand with gratitude and they make for one powerful combination to add happiness to your life.
- “Worrying doesn’t empty tomorrow of its sorrow, it empties today of its strengths.” – Corrie Ten Boom
- ““What day is it?” asked Pooh. “It’s today,” squeaked Piglet. “My favorite day,” said Pooh.”- A. A. Milne
- “Most humans are never fully present in the now because unconsciously they believe that the next moment must be more important than this one. But, then you miss your whole life, which is never not now.” – Eckhart Tolle
- “Breathe. Let go. And remind yourself that this very moment is the only one you know you have for sure.” – Oprah Winfrey
- “Don’t let the sadness of your past and the fear of your future ruin the happiness of your present.” – Unknown
- “Remember that there is only one important time and it is now. The present moment is the only time over which you have power.” – Leo Tolstoy
- “You can clutch the past so tightly to your chest that it leaves your arms too full to embrace the present.” – Jan Glidewell
- “The past is behind, learn from it. The future is ahead, prepare for it. The present is here, live it.” – Thomas S. Monsoon
- “Life is available only in the present moment.” – Thich Nhat Hanh
- “Every single second is an opportunity to change your life, because in any moment you can change the way you feel.” – Rhonda Byrne
- “Remember, today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.” – Dale Carnegie
- “Wherever you are, be all there.” – Jim Elliot
Being Intentional
I use the term ‘auto-pilot’ for when I was going through life without intention, without focus. I was going through the motions of life day in and day out. Time just passed by. I didn’t want to ‘lose’ any more time – I needed to put focus on what I was choosing to do each day and doing it with purpose.
I started by defining my Personal Core Values and then choosing to live intentionally by what I valued most in life – choosing to prioritize what I loved in life. Intention gives focus to your life so you can really live according to what matters most to you.
I hope these one small positive thought in the morning quotes remind you to be intentional.
- “Intentional days create a life on purpose.” – Adrienne Enns
- “It’s not about ‘what can I accomplish?’ but ‘what do I want to accomplish?’ paradigm shift.” – Brene Brown
- “Intentional living is the art of making our choices before others’ choices make us.” – Richie Norton
- “To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.” – Oscar Wilde
- “The key is not to prioritize your schedule but to schedule your priorities.” – Steven Covey
- “Living with intention means saying yes to what matters most.” – Crystal Paine
- “The busier you are, the more intentional you must be.” – Michael Hyatt
- “Be the designer of your world and not merely the consumer of it.” – James Clear
- “Life itself is a privilege, but to live life to the fullest – well, that is a choice.” – Andy Andrews
- “The 3 L’s of living intentionally. Learn from the past, Look forward to the bright future and Live in the present.” – Dr. Karen Jacobson
Confidence Boost
Everyone can use a pick me up every now and then! The world is a better and more interesting place by each of us being the unique person that we are.
I hope these quotes remind you to be confident in yourself.
- “Just be yourself. Let people see the real, imperfect, flawed, quirky, weird, beautiful, and magical person that you are.” – Mandy Hale
- “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
- “The most beautiful thing you can wear is confidence.” – Blake Lively
- “Confidence is not ‘they will like me.’ Confidence is ‘I’ll be fine if they don’t’”. – Christina Grimmie
- “Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind.” – Bernard M. Baruch
- “No one is you and that is your power.” – Dave Grohl
- “You can have anything you want if you are willing to give up the belief that you can’t have it.” – Robert Anthony
- “Believe you can and you’re halfway there.” – Theodore Roosevelt
- “I used to hate feeling embarrassed, but then I realized nobody’s watching and nobody gives a damn.” – Barbara Corcoran
- “Life has no limitations except the ones you make.” – Les Brown
From Me to You
I think any person can brighten a day with a nice cheerful compliment or well-wishing. So, that’s my final ‘quote’ for you. 🙂
- My ‘quote’ for you: “Good morning! I hope you have a wonderful day filled with joy.”
If you see the benefits of positive thinking and the happiness that even one small positive thought in the morning could bring you. You might really love defining your personal core values, our personal core values are the parts of life that bring us full and true joy, that fill us with happiness and light us up from the inside out.
When we have an awareness of what those personal core values are we can start to more easily make decisions in our life that align us with our core values, ultimately leading to more happiness and fulfillment from life. Check out this link for a step by step process on How to Live a Fulfilling Life and Define your Personal Core Values.
…and they all lived simply ever after.
