I had a life-changing experience this past weekend. I know that’s an overused phrase, but hear me out.

I attended Pursuit 2017, a leadership conference held in San Antonio. I was an extremely negative person before, but I felt like a completely new person after this conference.

The seminars in Pursuit 2017 taught me how to become a better, more positive person and showed me the importance of being emotionally stable.

There were several speakers that talked about how they overcame difficult challenges in their lives. Most importantly, they discussed the power of the mind and how the people we associate ourselves with can either make or break us.

This gave me a new perspective on having peace-of-mind and the changes I could make in my life to have a more positive mental attitude.

Always thinking negatively feels like walking around in a funk with a personal rain cloud above my head. It dampens my day.

The conference made me realize it is possible to create a positive mindset through consistent change and facing four truths.

First, I must believe I am a winner. It takes 21 days to create a habit; therefore, if I want to win big, I have to win daily. Tomorrow is going to be too late. I have to believe I am worthy enough every single day and great things will happen over time. If I tell myself everyday that I am awesome, the rain cloud will disappear.

Second, I have to stop making excuses. Excuses block the blessings intended for us to win. Winners don’t make excuses, they take action. When I learn to stop making excuses for things that go wrong in my life and appreciate the good things, the rain cloud will disappear.

Third, I have to associate with positive people. Their energy will project onto me and make me feel better. To be great, I have to walk with the great. I need to channel positive information and conversations into my mind daily. When I get rid of the negative and toxic voices in my head, the rain cloud will disappear.

Lastly, I have to have a vision and make a plan. The bible said, “A man without a vision will perish”. When I create an action plan for all the goals I want to achieve on a daily, weekly, monthly and even yearly basis and stick to them, as I tick them off and observe all that I accomplished, I will feel more confident and the rain cloud will eventually disappear.

I have made a decision to stop caring about what people thought about me and try to tune out negative comments about my life. That was my decision — I chose to win. Nothing will change in my life until I change the way I think. There’s a seed for everyone, but it needs the proper soil to blossom.

I chose to remove the rain cloud and blossom, and you can too.

Shari Smith is a management and finance senior.