Last week I decided to make a goal to have a more positive attitude. I consider myself a positive person but recently I've become more easily frustrated and prone to complaining. But then I wondered, "How can I be more positive? What kind of goal, exactly, could I make?"

Personally, goals where the motivation is associated with a reward or consequence don't work for me. Who's really going to change their behavior by snapping their wrist with a rubber band every time they think a negative thought? Yeah, that's really going to work.

One idea I had was to write up some positive affirmations that I could regularly repeat throughout the day, such as, "I'm a positive person; I have a good attitude about life," but then I remembered the following quote by President Boyd K. Packer, an apostle of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:

"True doctrine, understood, changes attitudes and behavior.

"The study of the doctrines of the gospel will improve behavior quicker than a study of behavior will improve behavior. Preoccupation with unworthy behavior can lead to unworthy behavior. That is why we stress so forcefully the study of the doctrines of the gospel" ("Little Children," Ensign, Nov 1986, 16).

I realized that if I studied scriptures, and quotes from our Church leaders, about having a positive attitude and being of good cheer I would be able to change my behavior more easily than reading self-help books on the same subjects. But how was I going to incorporate this study into my regular scripture reading and actually do it? That's when I remembered an excellent technique I learned from Steven Cramer's book, "Putting on the Armor of God: How to Win our Battles With Satan."

Brother Cramer's technique is to write scriptures on index cards which you carry with you and read over throughout the day. When you're walking down the hall, waiting in line, or on a break you can easily read over two or three scriptures. The point isn't just to memorize the scriptures, although that is a natural byproduct of repeating them over and over, but to incorporate their truth into our minds, day by day, week by week.

This technique, similar to repeating positive affirmations, is far more powerful because the affirmations are true, thus I've decided to call mine, "Affirmations of Truth," which I can rely on 100% because they are from God.

Now my goal is to search for, write on index cards, and repeat scriptures and quotes about a specific behavior. Once I've made adequate progress with that goal I will focus on a new gospel principle. What better way could there be to improve my attitude then to repeat God's own words about the subject?

Creating Affirmations of Truth is an excellent way to show our thanksgiving to God as we study the scriptures.
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