The roadblock we often encounter when thinking about making others more positive is that it goes against a long-held societal belief that we can’t change other people. Think about how many times over the course of your life someone has told you that you can’t change someone else. Although that might feel accurate in very extreme cases, for the vast majority of people in our lives, buying into this fallacy works against us.
This is not only disempowering but also scientifically false. We are changing people all of the time.
At some point in our careers, we’ve all felt how quickly negativity or stress spreads in a meeting. Perhaps a colleague of yours was presenting an idea, and there was a person in the room who might not have spoken up, but everyone knew how he or she felt about it. That dissenter’s silent scowl changes how everyone perceives the presentation.
Although it is fascinating to explore the ripple effect a toxic person can have, we have become significantly more interested in what happens when an optimistic, resilient, empowered person clearly communicates that mindset to others.
An optimistic mindset is infectious, and it lays the groundwork for individual and collective success. A research shows that changing your broadcast to be more optimistic can increase sales by 37 percent and the chance of a promotion over the next year by 40 percent.
In a study published in Harvard Business Review, it was found that you can increase creative problem-solving abilities by simply getting someone’s brain to move from problem to solution. In order to get unstuck, we must focus less on the problem and more on the solution.
When our brains become full of negative information early in the morning, the lens through which we view our work and our life changes. At work, stressful rumors or a negative boss can decimate employee engagement.
If our brain gets stuck focusing on the single piece of constructive criticism we received during our performance review, we most likely will not benefit from the praise we are given at the same time. The negative has a very real and lasting pull on us.
There are countless moments in each day when we can choose to broadcast happiness. It doesn’t mean we ignore the negative. We just choose not to get stuck there. We take action and celebrate the good.
Courtesy: www.success.com
