I had a conversation last week with one of my friends who was being tortured very slowly by a customer she was struggling to communicate with and to collaborate with. I asked her what made it torturous? She said that her customer was relentlessly negative and never satisfied with any result. I asked her why she was doing it, why she was allowing herself to be tortured slowly by this person. She said she had no choice because she needed the customer’s revenue. She resigned herself to continuing to work with this abysmal person and absorbing all of the negative stuff that he was sending her way. More on that later…
You ALWAYS Have a Choice – Life is short. Make the most of it, or don’t make the most of it. It’s really that simple. Recognize that you are personally involved through the actions you take, the decisions you make and the things you allow yourself to become a part of. It’s just too freaking easy to pretend with yourself and with others that you have no say in the matter. That’s true, if you want to play the role of a victim. On the other hand, if you want to get out from under your cloud and feel the sunshine, you can make decisions to take actions that will lead to better karma and better results. You ALWAYS have a choice, but you might need to be reminded every once in a while, that life is a series of opportunities to decide how you are going to handle your life and the situations that come your way. Own your mindset, and own your ability to choose your destiny.
Your Glass is ALWAYS Half Full – And your glass is ALWAYS half empty, if you choose to see it that way. Choose your mindset, and choose to recognize that things are going to go GREAT much of the time, but that there will be some challenges and adversity in your path. That’s OK! When challenges and adversity arrive, and you’ve been expecting them and preparing for them, you can quickly take intelligent action to turn things around to the positive. It’s a choice we make. Choose to look at the glass as a half full opportunity, or choose to look at the glass from a scarcity mindset of fear, and agonize over the fact that half of the juice is gone. It’s YOUR choice. As for me, I look at the glass as half full, and I’m looking for a pitcher so I can fill the son of a gun up to the brim!
Train Like You Will Fight – A good friend told me once that if you look at life like it’s a rehearsal, you will miss a lot of opportunities because you are not ready when the call comes. He advises people to look at life as a prize fight and to be constantly training for your shot at the title. If you train like you will fight, then you will fight like you have trained. You have to ensure that you are in the arena when the contest is being fought. You have to ensure that you bring your best to the battle when it starts. Make up your mind that you are going to practice every day like your life depends on the results and you need to practice perfectly for the obstacles that will no doubt come your way. Be positive and be mindful about what you do, day in and day out, to prepare yourself for the epic battle that will come. When it comes, you will be supremely ready, if you have trained yourself to bring your best.
Remove the Baggage – Too many people are walking around complaining about things. If you don’t like the way things are, get busy making changes that will lead to something better. Stop feeling sorry for yourself. Stop playing the victim. Stop letting fear and negativity remove what’s best about you. Drop off the baggage and continue on the journey without dragging your grudges and your bitter resentments with you every step of the way. Challenge yourself to be positive, and to be aggressive in making positive things happen. Challenge those around you to believe the best in themselves and to believe the best in the people around them. Teach them to gently reframe and refocus negative people into saying something positive or deciding to do something positive. Leave the baggage behind.
I could go on, but I won’t. I’m sure you are getting the point at this juncture. So, back to my friend, who was slowly being tortured by the customer with the dark cloud following him. She and I devised a gentle script to help this gentleman see that he was spewing a lot of negative bile out into the world. Once he got a look at how he was positioning himself, he was horrified and thanked my friend for helping him to see himself in the mirror. He asked for her help in fighting against his negative inclinations and pledged to become a force for positive change. He is now embarking on a journey of working at being more upbeat and positive. He is also working on being more active and in control of his mindset and the choices that will flow from that mindset. So, for today, two people are doing a lot better and feeling a lot better about their situations. Life is funny that way; we never know where the ripples will go, once they’re out of our sight. Where are YOUR ripples headed today?
Michael is an award-winning business coach and executive development advisor who has seen the power of being positive, and aggressively pursuing positive outcomes. Michael works with C-Suite Executives, their leadership teams, and their emerging leaders to create the conditions that lead to transformative change for companies. Tell us about your story of transformational change. How did you find your way to being more mindful about positivity and making the right choices? We’d love to hear about your journey…
