This is not a question I ask, but Grace asked this question in one of other questions and because I have recently thought about similar concept, I decided to make it a question rather than a reply in comments, so that more people can join in discussion :)

Sometimes, in our lives, we are in a situation where negativity dominates positivity. And despite our efforts to turn it around we seem to be unsuccessful. It's said that we try to move away from pain towards the pleasure.

So how to do it? How to transform one's life from negative to positive?

// following is my own theory and while I believe it to be true, I don't recognize it as the universal or the only one truth for everyone //

Buddhist say "where mind goes, body follows", but have you ever wondered what does mind follow? Who's the leader of the mind? If you apply self-awareness, mind can guide itself, but it can also get guided by external environment if you let it. And that is why I believe, Napoleon Hill (as one of many), suggested affirmations and auto-suggestions. Because nobody, to my belief, is capable of holding a single thought in his mind forever, or being self-aware 24/7, 7 days a week. There's always gonna be thoughts that are suggested by external environment. That is also why you can create "illusory" environment around yourself of already being wherever you want to be and it can help you hold the thoughts that equal vibrations of already being at that place.

So we use both internal and external sources to guide our minds. If you were overweight and wanted to shed some pounds, the best way to do it is to surround yourself NOT with other overweight people who wants to lose fat too, but WITH skinny people! With pictures of skinny people. (Just a side note, I also believe that alcoholic would recover from alcoholism faster when being in group of people who do not drink, than going to AA meetings.) If you are in group of overweight people, a contradiction is created. You look at picture of skinny person, and mind goes "yea I'm gonna look like this"...then you take your eyes away from it, look around and see fat people and your mind goes "oh no this is depressing me". Then you try to hold positive thoughts, trying to ignore the negative environment your eyes see and your mind goes "we can make it".

So what do we do, if we can't keep positive thoughts all the time?

I heard that one should not fight negativity within them. That they should observe it. But contrary to this opinion, I believe that negativity is very powerful, and I am inclined to say that it's more powerful than positivity - individually speaking. In a group positivity becomes a greater force because it multiplies since it is so contagious. Instead of being a mere observer of it, we should direct the negativity and make use of it. (remember we are speaking of negativity from individual stand-point. That is negativity and positivity as such are directly derived and define from the reality of the person that feels them). You can use your anger for your love. Your current suffering is far greater motivational force than the pleasure you are trying to reach.

Let see this in a picture. Imagine you feel stuck in the rut and want to reach the mountain's top. But because your reality is so negative, any attempt solely on positivity of mountain's top will hardly get you moving. In fact you are not even in the reach of that positive motivating force. So You have to work with what you got. Negative side is your friend, just as positive is. They were never enemies of each other.

If you use negativity to your advantage, the effect of moving forward will be massive. Real life speaking (lets stay with scenario of being obese for better continuity) - if you you want to change your look from fat to skinny, not only should you love idea of being skinny, but you must also hate idea of being fat. Love and Hate go hand in hand - they are just different degrees of the same thing, remember?

In other words, as much you hate being overweight equally that much you will love being skinny. If you think that being overweight is "not that bad"... you will never attempt to change.

The point is not being afraid of negativity or hating it. The more you love, the more you are able to hate. Yin Yang would never expand unevenly, but both sides will always expand equally, even if you let yourself be concerned with just one.

Use the power of both for your dreams.

So Grace, it is my belief that you should not be concerned about your inability to keep positive thoughts longer than negative ones. Look at the picture, as you move towards the mountain's top, positivity will overtake your thoughts slowly. What you should be concerned about is directing your negativity to help you move towards mountain's top instead rock bottom.

How you do it, is dependent on what are you trying to achieve. To give you an example, I'm a skinny guy and I would want to bulk up a great amount of mass. I use "hate" towards my current situation to push through fears and instilled ill habits. To even literally push and pull iron at gym with more rage creating far greater growth effect of my muscles than I would if I only imagined the positive - already there muscle guy. Because I have no idea of knowing what it is like to be like that, I just know everyone who done the transformation from skinny to heavy is telling me - it's amazing and they'd never go back. So I have to push through using negative force, till I get to the point where I gain enough muscle I will see and feel the ever growing benefits of that new lifestyle in that new body, and consequently with a new mind.

Directed hate used for greater love becomes constructive force. Because it does not drain your spirit, it empowers it instead with its energy. (If you have seen movie Titan A.E. - you know what I mean)

The question each individual should ask themselves then is - how do I transform my negativity from destructive into constructive force?

And now, let me invite you to discuss all of this :)