Staying Positive
I met up with a very dear friend of mine who has known me for more than 25 years. It was great to reminisce – and see where we are both up to now. Each of us reminded the other of some funny things we did years ago. The reality is though we remain the same, exuberant, optimistic and committed.
My friend said “even in those early days of your career you would get a room of people ‘excited’ by your concept. People have always loved your passion!”
One of the reasons for the title of my book ‘I want what she’s having’ is because after a speaking engagement some years ago a participant came up to me and said “I don’t know what you are ‘on’ but I want some of it.’
I’m fortunate to have been given the strength of positivity, (according to the Gallup Strengths Finder) But there are still some thing’s I do to ensure that I keep myself energised and grounded.
Five steps to positivity:
- Never worry about things I cannot impact. For that reason, I don’t watch the News, or even Read Newspapers. I learn by getting the information I want in bite size pieces. Like the online news services. There are atrocities on the planet which I can do nothing about. I need to work on making my world a better place.
- I don’t play the blame game, that is I take responsibility for what happens. If a misunderstanding takes place I will be accountable for it – and rectifying it. (I’ve learned that you need to face these things head on – not wait for them to fix themselves they usually fester and get worse.)
- Hang out with positive people. Happiness breeds happiness.
- I always do the things I don’t want to do first. I get the uninteresting tasks or have the tough conversations over and done with as soon as possible. Then I can move on to the good stuff without having something hanging over my head.
- Share the love, if you are positive then others will be too… positivity is infectious.
I remember my husband saying to me years ago – after a particularly challenging few days at work. “Did anyone die? If not then it surely cannot be that bad – move on, don’t cling, deal with it.” Sage advice.
For more on positivity and passion:
Shumi says
Hi Naomi,
Came across your blog while surfing your company website. Enjoyed reading your blog.
I agree with your 5 steps to positivity. Point 3 is really important especially when you start your own business. however have a big problem in doing step 4 :-).
I, like you, started an online gift portal (in Malaysia and Singapore) after working in the Corp world for 11 years.
Here’s wishing you a blessed year ahead.
Cheers,
Shumi
Denis @ $30 Date Night says
I’m down with that… news is depressing – although it makes it tough keeping up with conversations about current affairs.
Yet still, I’d much rather have specific knowledge than keeping up to date with things like how much weight K Rudds wife has lost and is this related to her illness.