Remember when your mother told you that nobody in the world was just like you? That no one in the world is the same and you were unique? I hate to break it to you, but there is one thing every single human being has in common... we all have bad days. Sorry, Mom. Maybe you don't call it a "bad day" but rather a learning lesson or a "Monday". But it is the only thing every human being can relate to.

And I am not saying we all have the same bad day because it is based on a continuum. A bad day, to me, could be a moderate day for you and vice versa. I have found that after having a bad day, we use our negativity to try and make others understand how terrible it was. Frankly, we are never successful because pain is the one emotion that is not universal. It's impossible to feel someone else's pain. Happiness is a universal emotion that we can pass on and feel for others. But we can never feel someone else's pain in its entirety.

With that, here are five tips on how to be a Positive Polly in a world of Negative Nancys:

1. Start each day by writing down three items you are excited about.

Maybe you have an important meeting or a test that is weighing down your mind. Think about three positive things that are going to happen throughout the day that will help rearrange your thinking. For example, you are going to stop at your favorite coffee shop and pick up a cappuccino to lighten the mood. That's one. In between your meetings you will be meeting a friend for lunch. That's two. Lastly, for dinner, you are having your favorite pasta. That's three. Thinking about positive aspects of your day will help reroute the tendency of looking at the glass half empty.

2. Ixnay the complaining-ay.

I have found that when people don't know how to start a conversation with someone, they jump to complaining. It's not anything intentional, but rather a way to share commonalities. Like I mentioned before, we can all relate to someone else's negativity. It starts as a simple demeaning comment and turns into a complaining fest. To reverse that, start by bringing up something positive like a compliment. It changes the conversation from involving "I don't like" or "I can't stand" to "I enjoy" or "I love".

3. Complaining Jar

For one week, focus on eliminating negativity and complaints. So, for every negative statement or complaint about someone or something, you drop a dollar into a jar. Not only does the jar show how much negativity comes out of your mouth but it also puts a price on complaints. Complaining is demeaning to someone's father, mother, son, or daughter. At the end of the week use the change to give back to someone in need.

4. Grateful Journal

This is not like any grateful journal you've seen on Pinterest or Facebook posts because guess what? It came straight from my brain. Start out by dedicating a month to realizing the positive aspects of your day. Use the first week to write down ONE item, situation, or person you were grateful for during that day. The second week will consist of writing down TWO items, situations, or people who impacted your day in a positive way. The third week will be three items, situations, or people, and the fourth week will be four items, situations, or people. With the first week, you will realize that it is difficult to just choose one positive aspect. This will make the following three weeks easier. Your positive statements in the first week will shape you items in the weeks to come. Similar to the way you approach negativity at the beginning of your day will deter the rest of your day.

5. Front Door Comments

This one is going to be the most difficult for all you Negative Nancy's. What are the first few words that come out of your mouth when walking through the front door? Are they complaints about how long it took you to get home? How rude it was that your boss made you stay late? Or is it a recap of your entire day that consisted of how the world was out to get you? If you're a Postive Polly, how do you feel when you have to listen? It can be exhausting listening to every terrible thing that happened during the day because it causes the listener to think about how terrible their day was. Leading to more negativity. It can also cause the listener to not want to continue the conversation. To fix this issue, start by turning the negative statement into a positive one. For example, instead of starting with "My boss made me stay late after he knew I had a hard day". This statement could be reversed to "My boss made me stay late, which was initially inconvenient but I am grateful for the extra time because I was able to go through the stack of papers that has been sitting on my desk for weeks."

What kind of world would we live in if every news story was about the postivity in the world rather than an abundance of negative situations that happened during a 24 hour period?