Staying Positive Amoungst So Much Negativity

It is extremely easy to find constant sources of negativity in the world. One of the easiest ways is to simply turn on the local news as it is often filled with negative stories. Unfortunately, most of the stories revolve around bad things happening to good people. There is nothing that anyone in the world can do to change this, as it is part of everyday life. I would sum up this type of negativity as unavoidable. The negativity you want to avoid is usually brought on by the various people you interact with on a daily basis. The ones that want to bend your ear about everything that is wrong with their job, their boss, their life, ect.

I worked in an office setting having direct supervision over a staff of twenty people. In my eighteen years of management not one day went by without some kind of major problem arising. In fact most days there were multiple problems all worse than the one before. While I know it is a cliche, my first response to "we have a problem" was "there are no such things as problems, only opportunities". In all honesty I really believed that to be true. I found that in managing people, if you start to panic, all hell will break loose with the rest of the troops. Now that I work on my own I sometimes have to remind myself that problems really are opportunities in disguise.

While I think most people would like to think of themselves as optimists, in reality there are very few people in the world who truly are. I myself, a staunch optimist, will let negativity creep into my psyche. It is only the fact that I can not stand to be around negative people that snaps me back into a positive state of mind. It is hard for me to dwell on some minor issues in my life that given the right attention and some time, will correct themselves, when there are so many people in this world facing serious, often life threatening situations everyday of their lives. You need to put things into their proper perspective before you start complaining about the problems you may face.

Negativity will never go away, as it is woven into the fabric of society. How you choose to deal with it is entirely up to you. You can easily succumb to the masses and join in the rant, or rise above the complaints and find a better way, a positive response.