With the new year in full swing, I want to focus on something that encapsulates some if not most people when it comes to how they live their work lives. A trap that’s so easy to fall into. The trap that confines you to the zone of negativity. It’s easy to land there when you allow the dissatisfying factors around you to dictate your thought process. When it comes to running a business and owning your career, this sentiment and behavioral characteristic can produce a recipe for dissatisfaction.
You hear all the time about the power of positive thought. I think that’s extremely important and leads to positive results. However, I want to key in on the effects that negative thoughts play on different facets of your business, yourself and those around you. It’s effects are far reaching and impact all of your efforts, large or small. It even spills over into our ability to craft effective social media posts or produce an impactful video.
It’s easy to think of all the ways that you can fail. If I’m being honest, I enter that world once and while — but I don’t stay there long. I truly believe that if you think you’re going to fail, you will fail. Thinking you will succeed doesn’t guarantee success, but at least you’re giving yourself a shot. Building on the positives will put you in a much better place regardless. Things tend to fall into place much quicker when positive mojo is part of the foundation.
Here are a few areas that might trigger that negative alarm bell and why reversing that impulse is critical.
Clients
We all have those not so fun to get along with clients. The ones that try to suck the life out of you no matter what the task is. Thankfully we only get one of those once in a while at Spiracle Media. It’s important to remind yourself that this isn’t the status quo. If it is, it might be time for self-evaluation as a person and a company. A positive or relaxed mindset breeds a sentiment that is naturally passed onto the client and quells the urge to get frustrated. In time, that mindset becomes your default mode even when stumbling upon a challenge. The right mindset is imperative in making sure all clients are treated the same.
Money
This is a subject that can be very uncomfortable to talk about and even harder to broach when you encounter a dwindling bottom line. Money isn’t everything, but it is everything when you’re running a business. It’s hard to take money issues with a grain of salt. The livelihood of your employees, yourself and the prospects of growth depend on it. The best case scenario is to win the small battles when you’re down and to exercise some caution when you’re up. Invest in areas that make sense. Check the trends and do your best to make sure that the people or tools you’re adding allow for maximum benefit. Slow times happen. Get your mind and bank account right so you can weather those dips in business. Those moments tend to arrive unannounced.
Loss of Creativity or Drive
Complacency is a vice. It leads to a lack of willingness to put 100% into every project. I received some great advice last year during a meeting with a comparable company in San Francisco. Treat every project with the same degree of care and creativity no matter how large the client or cost of the project. You must buy into the mantra that improvement, even in incremental steps, leads to larger projects and an open window to expansive creativity. Don’t bring the rest of the group down. Pumping adequate energy into everything you do will yield surprising results and opportunities.
Negativity in my eyes is a function of the mind that stems from your ability to deal with your immediate environment as well as the results that are a part of it. Those results are usually connected to your efforts. At the end of the day, it comes down to consistency in the departments of determination and ambition. I am thankful each and every morning for so many things. Spiracle Media and the people I get to work with on a daily basis are certainly in the top 3. We turn four in March and I make it a point every day to bask in the possibilities, even if for a moment, of what we can become. I know a big part of that depends on my attitude and work ethic. How well do you deal with the negative and let it go? Don’t be that leader or employee that’s an obstacle to success. Growing a business or brand is hard enough without the unnecessary strain.
I’ll side with the positive option every time.
