A few days ago I sat in the doctor’s office and yawned. As soon as I did two other people in the room did as well. WEIRD.
After I left the office I thought to myself: WOW! What if we could make ourselves affect other lives in that same way, by being as “contagious” as a yawn.
BUT, the thing is we can, and we do. But sometimes we don’t see it.
Here is the thing, folks: Our everyday actions affect others around us. Whether in a good way, or a bad way, we are always being observed by others. If that makes you paranoid, maybe that is a good thing. It could be a boss who is looking to see how we perform, or a younger brother or sister who is looking up to us.
Take the workplace as an example. If we, as leaders, go into work with a horrible attitude and only negativity, what will that do to the others around us? Our negativity will be contagious. Not only that, it will create a “negative feedback loop.” Our negativity makes others start feeling negative, angry, “down,” frustrated -even laziness is contagious. Then it starts coming back to us, reflected back to us. That is how human emotions work. Watch one baby start to cry in a room full of babies and you will see this principle at work. If you come in negative, pretty soon you have a room full of crying, fussy babies.
If we look at it from the perspective of that “yawn”, you can see we are hard-wired to be affected by others’ emotions.
None of us wake up with the mindset of “I want to make others miserable” today. If we do, we might want to see a doctor -and maybe try to smile more ;).
So… If how we act affects others so easily, what can we do to make sure we come in with our ‘A’ game? Here are a few simple things!
Firstly, wake up with a plan. We will never be able to be at our BEST if we have nothing to aim for. It goes back to this foundation we talked about. When we wake, start out with “What goals am I going to achieve today? How I will do it?”.
Secondly, treat others how you want to be treated. A day can easily be ruined when you start holding resentment against someone. When you see others as yourself you will not harbor negative feelings. By doing so in turn your attitude will attract positive energy from the people around you.
And lastly, find the positive in every situation. As Maria Snyder said: “Positive thoughts lead to positive results.” While our state of mind will have a DRAMATIC impact on how we perceive a situation, trying to look for the positive can take away some of the negativity we experience in bad situations. By looking at each experience as having a lesson to teach us, we can learn something about ourselves.
By being positive and having the right mindset, someone will perceive that in you and CRAVE it. It goes both ways, and with our right mindset we have created a “positive feedback loop”, reflecting positive things back and forth to each other. Only WE determine the outcome BY OUR ACTIONS.
So, let’s make our actions as CONTAGIOUS as a yawn. Hey, who cares if the whole room is yawning! It may be a little awkward at first, but only good things come from awkward! Just imagine a room full of positive and happy people! PRICELESS!
Be contagious. Be a good vibe. Change others.
Please LIKE and SHARE if you enjoyed!
Have a great Tuesday!
Comments