The world we live in is full of doom and gloom and also wonderful happiness. It’s yours to choose what you focus on. The news media seems to push the doom and gloom at us 24/7/365. People are more apt to leave bad reviews on your business online than taking the time to leave great reviews. I try my best to fill a lot of my day with positive thinking, happy thoughts and a lot of laughs.
In “The Sound of Music”, Julie Andrews sang about “Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens. Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens. Brown paper packages tied up with strings.” Why? Because those were a few of her character’s favorite things. 🙂 She danced and sang throughout the town and up and down the mountains about things that made her happy. She was sure a positive person in some trying times. She’s one that would see a glass half full instead of half empty.
I put the photo of the puppies and kitten on this to hopefully bring a smile to your face. By being able to focus on things that make us smile and happy as we maneuver through this negative world, can help get us through some tough times. Things that make me happy aren’t raindrops on roses or bright copper kettles, but things like my family, my dogs and cat, watching videos that make me laugh, being hired as a motivational speaker / corporate entertainer for corporate events, doing what I can to make others happy. Those things make me happy.
I can be having a stressful day, but when I get home and my dogs come running up to me all happy to see me, it takes me of a place of pure happiness for that moment. They are as excited to see me no matter if I was gone for 30 days or 30 seconds. What makes you happy? Do you fill your days with more of what makes you happy or more of what stresses you out?
If you own or work for a company are the hours in the office full of positive thinking people or negative ones? Instead of listening to music filled with foul language and hate, listen to a TED Talk on the way to work. Instead of listening to new, turn on some happy music. If you are on a train, carpooling or in some other situation where you don’t have total control, put on some headphones or one earbud in and fill your commute with all things positive.
By starting out on the right foot and a positive note, the rest of your day should be a little smoother. By starting it out on a negative note, it usually continues down that negative hill.
There is a parable about an old Cherokee Indian Chief teaching his grandson about life. The grandfather was a very wise man with kind eyes and a gentle soul. He was highly respected by his tribe and people turned to him for advice. As he sat with his grandson by the fire the smoke rose up into the moonlit sky. You could see stars by the thousands up above. He looked down at his young grandson and said “There are two wolves inside of us. One is a good wolf filled with kindness, happiness, bravery and love. The other is an evil wolf filled with hate, greed and fear.”
The grandson looked up at his grandfather with wonder in his eyes and asked “Grandfather, Which one wins?”. The Chief looked back at the boy and said “The one you feed.”.
We all have the ability to be a positive thinking person or a negative thinking person. Which one wins? The one we feed. I have a theory that I’m writing about in an upcoming book I’m going to publish that goes into detail about what we put in our minds is what we get out. To kind of sum it up, it’s all about what we are filling our minds with is how our life plays out. If we filled our brains / feed our wolves with music full of horrible language and hate filled lyrics, are bad to others and don’t care, we’ll have a life filled with problems. Look at the people that you think are successful and those that you think aren’t doing very well in life. Are the negative people that are always causing problems the successful ones? I doubt it.
Companies can set a policy to keep the news off in the break room. Why fill your employee’s minds with negativity for the 60 minutes they are having lunch. Put on motivational talks, happy music, board games, video games, anything to keep their mind occupied on fun / happy things for their break. Try to steer the negative employees into being more positive. If possible have a book of the month club and get your employees reading positive books or listening to audiobooks on the way to work.
I mentioned in a blog post about how to deal with negative employees a story about a man I once met that ran an extremely profitable company. He told me he took the front page / section out of all newspapers in his office. He said they were mostly full of negative news and he didn’t want his employees getting filled with negative info when he wanted them to be positive on the job. Talk of news that would bring people down wasn’t permitted in his company.
“People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily.” – Zig Ziglar
Companies that take the time to motivate and educate their employees usually do better than those that don’t.
Bad news makes the headlines. There are thousands of lives saved everyday by heroic doctors, nurses and just everyday bystanders, but the news will usually focus on the horrible hit and run accident that left a mother of 3 dead. Bad news and shocking stories sells the papers. It gets you to watch the news.
Getting your employees to practice positive thinking starts with you doing it, too. Compliment your employees on the good things they are doing more than getting after them about the bad things. I’m not saying don’t correct them on what they are doing wrong, but praise them more for what they are doing well and you’ll see more greatness coming out of them.
Sometimes it takes bringing in a professional to get the positive thinking ball rolling. Have a kickoff meeting / conference for the year or quarter and bring in a motivational speaker or entertainer (like me! 🙂 ) to get your employees off on the right foot. Other times is can be as simple as doing some of the other simple things I mentioned in this post. In our negative world it’s easier said than done.
If you focus on the positive rather than the negative you’ll soon see a big difference in your life and the life of those around you.