Do you ever talk with someone and feel like you need a shower just to wash off the other person’s negativity?
Well, I had one of those calls last night. I knew better than to answer. The person calling is what I would call a "Negative Norma". But against my better judgement, I pick up… And less than 5 minutes into the conversation, they start droning on about the negative things in their life. I cut them off quickly because I do my best to allow as little negativity as possible in my life. But they persist and I have to cut them off again and quickly end the call. I did my best to forget about it and move on. But this morning, that negativity was still bothering me and I started thinking about how to prevent this "Negative Norma" tendency. So I grabbed a glass, filled it up with water, and asked my friend to describe the glass. "It has water in it," says my friend. "Is the glass half full or half empty?" I ask. My friend pauses and looks as if I’m asking a trick question. "Half full?" my friend asks. "Well, this is how I see it, that all depends on your perspective." it’s all how you look at life and what type of person you want to be. Hopefully my little lesson today will be another small contribution to building a positive outlook on life. Don’t make the same mistakes I did. Early in my career, I used to be a dumping ground for negativity. Because I wanted to be caring and build loyalty, I’d listen and empathize. I was a great listener and people loved me. Two big challenges arose… First, I was constantly being bathed in negativity and it drained my energy. Second, I was doing the opposite of what a good leader does. By sympathizing with their negativity and listening to how bad things were, I was allowing them to bathe in their own negativity. Understand that as leaders, it’s our job to instill a "glass half full" mentality. Yes, there will be challenges. Any business has challenges. But if we allow those challenges to become reasons for us to have a gloom and doom mentality, we will most certainly be doomed. I don’t really care what the challenge is… Pandemic - global economic meltdown - people quitting - it doesn’t really matter… I’m going to play the hand I was dealt as if it were the hand I wanted. Whatever challenges get thrown at me, I’ll take them as a gift and focus intensely on the blessing. And because I’m always looking for the blessing… blessings I find. Teach that philosophy and never allow yourself to be a dumping ground for negativity.
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AuthorMy voice has been your voice even before you were born Archives
August 2022
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