Negative people

Are there people in your life making it difficult to stay positive?  These people provide a poisonous air to those they are around and you need to figure out how to either vacate the premises or put on a gas mask.

The first thing to do is ask yourself if you really need to be in the same space as the negative people that are invading your life.  If they are in the lunch room at work, start eating somewhere else.  If they are the family you visit on holidays, don’t go.   If they are in your workplace, can you change jobs or locations?  You may not think you can, but you’d be surprised what could come up if you really started to think about it.  But for many of us this is difficult and challenging and we may like where we are, we just don’t like the one person.

I have a more entertaining way to deal with people that drive you nuts.  Think about the person then think about cartoon characters you know.  Often you can associate a character with your negative person.  I did this with one person and the next time they walked into my office to vent about something that I had no control over and didn’t really care about, I let him go off on his tangent, except I was picturing him as Elmer Fudd when he gets frustrated with Bugs Bunny.  I had to stop myself from not laughing out loud, but it sure gave the situation a whole different perspective. 

Think about people in your life that are difficult or negative.  Picture them as a cartoon character and leave your frustration behind.