This post is sponsored by Frost Bank. All thoughts & opinions are my own.

In only a few days, summer is officially gone and a new season begins.  A few days ago, Frost Bank’s 30-Day Optimism Challenge concluded and now it’s up to the individuals who took part in this challenge to begin a new season of consistent optimism.

If you’re following this blog and my Instagram, you know that I took part in this challenge. If you missed the previous posts, just click the following link: How to Be Optimistic and Love Your Life: Do The 30-Day Optimism Challenge and Four Things I’ve Learned From The 30 Day Optimism Challenge.

It’s easy to do a challenge when you know there is a community of like-minded individuals who is aiming for the same thing. But what happens when the community challenge like this one ends and you’re on your own to continue what you’ve started? In my opinion, that’s when the real challenge begins.

You have to find your own inner strength. You have to find the motivation to do so. You have to make a choice to stay positive.

But it’s not always easy, right? I get it. We are not super humans who can always hustle and tackle everything with such positivity. There will always be highs and lows. We can fall. We might fall. We will fall some days. But life isn’t all about not falling. I’ve learned that we learn our lessons from those falls…those failures. Without them, we will not find our strengths.

As a normally positive person, I have my down moments too.  But everyday, I have to choose what my outlook in life is going to be. I can choose to look negative at things and situations in my life that’s not going the way I would like for it to be or I can choose to stay positive knowing that things will work itself out.

Whether you took part in this challenge or just someone who want to have a positive attitude in life, two big words and a summary of how you can be optimistic and continue to be optimistic:

GRATITUDE + PERSPECTIVE

I think a lot of our dissatisfaction and unhappiness comes from the fact that we seem to be always looking for something and at things that we don’t have. We don’t take the time to sit down, think, reflect, and thank God for what we have. We’re always on social media looking at the lives of other people, thinking it’s #goals, wishing we have what they have, that we forget the blessings that we have. Know this: there is ALWAYS something to be grateful for. And that’s actually where perspective comes in.

We can’t be grateful for something if we’re thinking we’re always missing out or we’re always lacking on something. I’m sure you’ve heard this old adage: Count your blessings. It’s an oldie but a goodie. If we’re grateful for what we have, it’s easier to be grateful. And it’s easier to be positive. And it’s easier to keep things in perspective. Gratitude creates a ripple effect in our inner disposition more than we know.

Believe it or now, optimism or positive actually creates a physical evidence in our brain and our body secretes a chemical that calls for more of the same. Once you make the habit of being optimistic, it eventually becomes easier in due time. It takes 7 days to create a habit and 11 days to break one. If you’re not a normally positive person, try thinking positive thoughts and saying positive affirmations consistently for 21 days and notice for yourself an improvement in your disposition and in your life in general!