Posts tagged Fifteen Years

Wake up. Hit snooze button. Get up. Get ready. Go to work. Return home. Eat dinner. Collapse into bed. Rinse and repeat. It can be too easy to fall into the same mundane routine, and the deeper you fall, the harder it is to make adjustments. Maybe you feel more comfortable maintaining the same rhythm day after day, and that’s understandable, because change can be a difficult and frightening thing. However, what if change was your only option? Or, what if you knew that making alterations in your daily life, behavior, or attitude could significantly impact your life for the better? If you can overcome the discomfort and fear of change, you can see the positive effects you otherwise would have missed.

Sometimes, life places you in a position where you must adapt and try to succeed, or end up stuck and unable to move forward. Mark, a salesperson for fifteen years, suddenly found himself unable to find work, because of the recession in the 1980′s. He had no other training to fall back on, and decided to offer to mow his neighbors’ lawns until he could find a permanent job. While he was just trying to make ends meet, he ended up finding a lifelong career. Mark said he never thought that mowing lawns would change his life, but that’s just what happened, and he couldn’t be happier with this decision or this change.

While it is certainly not easy to start a new career, as Mark did, some could say he was forced into making some kind of change. Sometimes, you need to make changes that aren’t required for survival, but might bring some happiness into your life. The people you see daily could be dragging that happiness down for you. Your neighbor can’t let go of his grumpy demeanor, a store clerk always has a scowl on her face, and a relative appreciates nothing you do. While it’s natural for these negative behaviors and actions to annoy you, you can’t let them bring you down. Instead of returning the negativity or cursing them in your head, try sending them some positive thoughts and a prayer or two. After continually sending these good thoughts, these people may let some of the warmth seep in, and flash a smile or two in your direction. Try it and see if you can change the attitude of others, simply by being consistently kind, generous and loving toward them. Make a change in your thinking and actions to try and influence someone else’s life.

Sending positive thoughts and acting kindly toward others can change people’s automatic responses and actions. People will often mirror the manner and attitude they receive, which can make bad situations manageable, or that much worse. As an example, after a long flight delay, two gate agents tried helping the long lines of people find new connecting flights. One of the gate agents huffed and puffed her way through the task, raising her voice to passengers and repeating the same irritating mantra, “I’m doing the best I can ma’am!” The other agent calmly managed each passenger with a smile, apologized for the delay and told each one, “Let me see what I can do to get you on your way quickly.” The biggest difference between the two lines was that the passengers in the line with the disgruntled agent were also disgruntled passengers, whereas the ones in the other line, while still just as inconvenienced as those in the first line, seemed calmer and more satisfied in the end. The second agent was able to stay cordial and positive and her attitude rubbed off on those waiting in her line, which allowed both the passengers and the agent to have the best possible experience in a frustrating situation.

Don’t let yourself get stuck in a rut of negativity. If you’re dissatisfied with your current employment, explore what else is out there. When those around you send out negativity, surprise them by showing them kindness. Change is inevitable, but you can control the change by making positive choices and banishing negativity from your vocabulary, actions, and life.