Don’t you even think for a moment that I have given up my practice of writing down the successes of the day. In fact, it gets stronger and more creative every day. I still consider it has one of the best effort/return ratios around, and I think the repetition of such a practice is giving me a better understanding of how it works.
One of the things that computer science is finding hard to replicate from human brain is its organic nature. Silicon cannot modify its own structure in the way that living entities do. That’s why the repetition of conscious, deliberate optimism makes us more optimistic. It is like a muscle. Let me put an example: let’s say you have the “Oh it’s so” neuron and the “Cool” neuron.
The first time you think “Oh it’s so cool”, there is an electric discharge traveling from one to the other.
The next times you think “Oh it’s so cool”, both neurons become more sensitive one to the other, more specialized.
After enough repetitions, following a principle of economy, both neurons even physically approach to each other, so that their everyday job of producing “oh it’s so cools” consumes less energy. At the same time, such closeness will promote more “oh so cools” along the day, etc.
…of course, living entities as we are, this process is fully reversible (one day you can start to use your “oh it’s so” and your “miserable” neurons, for example).
…of course, the model shown here is a brutal simplification for the sake of example 
The fact is that I keep on writing my successes of the day every night (when I go to bed so tired that I forget, I do it first thing in the morning), and I’m becoming increasingly positive and my days are longer and more plentiful.
Besides, the remains of the old mentality are rapidly disappearing (it might take some time, though: too many years of bad habits, and one must be careful, because they return from time to time, just when you thought that the nightmare was over).
Another improvement I have noticed is that now and then, I find easy to “generate” positive events along the day. You just take a breath and ask yourself “if I had to generate my list of successes right now, what would I write?”. And you always find things because you have trained your perception to find them.
So, again, I strongly recommend you to take 1-2 minutes every night to write the successes of the day, especially if you have any problem of addiction to negative feelings (which isn’t unusual, being in a society that promotes them). It certainly pays off and, in case that your brain is remotely similar to mine, the results are incredible.
Have you given it a try? What other habits do you use to train yourself in positivity?
Related posts:
How to become optimistic with very little effort
Every day is “the” day
A new way of being positive
Use verbal icons for your projects
The magic of journaling