In the post How Being a Positive Person Changed My Business, I talked about working to have a more positive outlook on life. And how that attitude can change your business. Today let’s talk about how to put that new way of thinking to use when you are confronted with a negative situation or person. Especially when this happens in your business.

So, let’s say you encounter a negative situation. Once you have started to be a more positive person you will find that negative situations will have an immediate and profound effect on you. You can instantly sense when the vibe in the room you are in changes to be negative. This can happen when some people step into the room. It can happen when a particular topic is being addressed. But each and every time it happens it will be like an assault to your senses and your psyche. You will know instantly that you need to turn the situation around or remove yourself from it before you find yourself becoming negative.

This happened to me recently when I was faced with a situation where there were two different negative people in the room. The first one I could do something about but the second I could not. The second was the person speaking to the group I was in. This person was very obviously not happy to be in the room. They were a bit hostile in their delivery. In addition, their approach to their subject was to come at things from a negative angle. So, what did I do?

Well to be honest, I did not handle it as well as I could have. I let the negativity get to me. I let the speaker instill self-doubt into me. And I stayed in the situation too long. Here are some tips that I wish I had remembered at the time to help.

  • Assess the situation. Figure out where the negativity is coming from. Is it like my situation where it is coming from someone that is speaking to your group? Is it a member of the group? Is it someone else in the room? Once you assess the situation you will be better able to proceed.
  • Can you influence things. Depending on where the negativity is coming from you might be able to influence things. If it is someone in your group you can try to help them see a more positive side of things. You can encourage them to take a break which may help. If it is the speaker you might be able to interject into the conversation with a question that might drive things in a more positive direction.
  • Stop the brain chatter. If you can’t influence things you must make sure that you stop your own brain chatter. You can’t let the negativity get inside your head and start your brain chatter. In the blog post 5 Tips for Battling the Brain Chatter, I talked about specific ways to battle brain chatter. Go back to it if you need a refresher. If you don’t stop the brain chatter quickly it will do it’s best to take over in your head. It can build up speed quickly and it will permeate everything about your day. So, you need to shut it down.
  • Remove yourself from the situation if possible. If you aren’t able to influence things to completely change the tone find a way to remove yourself from the situation as soon as possible.

To sum it up, your positive attitude will help you see and sense these situations more quickly and clearly. And in many ways, it will help you prevent them just by bringing a positive energy to the room. You won’t be able to change everyone but you may be able to change some. Most of all you will change the way you handle them when they occur and you will lessen the impact they have on you.

By: Jen G Anders, Lead Designer, Cosmital Designs and Amy Matthews, CEO, AMI