Something that occurs to me on a daily basis these days, as evidenced every time I open one of my social media feeds, is that people are buying into and spreading negativity.
It's there in almost every direction.
If you turn on the television, it's negative. If you open Facebook, it's negative. There's post about people disappointing you, backstabbing you or otherwise doing you wrong in some way. There's a meme about how surprised someone is by the way they are treated by their family. There's a photo of a gas pump with an outrageous amount being paid to fill up their vehicle.
It's everywhere. I have seriously considered going away from Facebook for a while or just deleting my profile altogether. The only reason I don't do it today? It's not because I need to "keep up" with everyone. It's not that I need that to keep in touch with my family. It's that I feel the accountability to be positive in a world full of negative. I have been posting on social media and You Tube since 2007. That's a long time and I would venture to guess in all that time, you may be able to find 10 posts that were remotely negative. It probably had something to do with a sports event, but I doubt it had to do with a person.
Do we not have enough of the negativity already being put out there for us? Why not dare to be different? Dare to be a light in the world rather than another section of the darkness?
I have said for years if you want to do well, whether that's be promoted or make more money, or whatever your definition of "doing well" is, one of the ways to do it is to be relentlessly positive. Absolutely refuse to buy into the negative. Life in general is sometimes very hard. Things happen in your life to throw you curve balls and setbacks. Practicing being relentlessly positive helps fortify you even more when those times appear in your life and career.
Not only that but having a reserve of positivity helps others. They recognize who they can come to in order to get some relief. They know who to engage when they need a break or a little hope. Staying relentlessly positive can help you maintain a stronger network of people who want to be around you and have you around them.
And finally, I thoroughly believe staying relentlessly positive benefits you from a health perspective. It's better for your body and all its parts. Doctors and professionals have warned us for years about the negative health effects of stress. How it releases dangerous and harmful chemicals into our systems which shorten our lives considerably. The strain on the important muscle in our bodies, which is our heart and its vascular system.
You need things that make you laugh and smile and feel better about life. Give yourself a break from all the negativity because I highly doubt it's going to end anytime soon. Ghandi's oft-repeated quote is "be the change you want to see in the world". I cannot imagine that quote fitting any better than it does when thinking about helping the world be a little less negative and a little more positive.
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