How To Deal With Negative People
It took many years for me to come to the realization that negative people do nothing to enhance my life or business and as soon as I learned how to deal with negative people both my life and my business got a whole lot better.
Trust me on this, I used to thrive on negativity and drama.
In fact, my Dad would say, “Michelle, drama follows you everywhere!”
Years ago you would always find me surrounded by someone who was complaining about a boyfriend, their husband, their life, their job, the driver on the road, the cashier at the grocery store, the waitress, the bartender, their next door neighbor, their child’s dance teacher, or the coach.
You name it and they were involved in some sort of negative drama that involved non-stop complaining.
I am embarrassed to admit that quite often I got sucked into their negativity and as a result, I started to feel badly about my own life.
So much so that I started to question my own decisions in my own life and business.
Unbeknownst to me at that time, I was allowing my mindset and decision making to be influenced by other people’s negativity.
I remember at one point early on in my home based business career, I became part of a circle of women who were constantly complaining about the management of the company of which we were distributors.
It seemed like they were constantly complaining about other distributors and the changes to the comp plan.
Because of their constant complaining, my days became consumed by their negativity.
Before I knew it, the day was over and I had accomplished nothing other than my ear had been bent by their tireless gossiping and complaining.
The effects of listening to those negative people destroyed my mindset and quite frankly my career at my very first home based business opportunity.
I lost friendships and ultimately ended up quitting that business.
How To Deal With Negative People And Avoid The Drama
What I have learned about that previous situation is that it really didn’t have to turn out that way.
Truth be told I could have avoided all of the drama and negativity.
As I look back at that time, I realize that I have nobody else to blame but myself. I was the one that allowed all of that negativity to creep into my life and business.
What I learned from that experience is that we all have control over who we listen to and who we choose to hang out with.
It’s your circle and you can invite whoever you want into that circle.
And the best part about it is….
You can also kick them out!
Someone once said “Don’t let negative & toxic people rent space in your head. Raise the rent & kick them out.”
Those are great words to live by.
4 Lessons I Learned From Allowing Negative People To Rent Space In My Head
So here are 4 lessons that I learned from allowing negative people to rent space within my circle. Hopefully you can learn from this and avoid what I went through.
1.) Negativity Will Destroy Any Momentum You Have In Your Business: Need more proof?? Re-read my story above.
2.) Negativity From Others Will Be Contagious:
It was like I got a disease that started to spread rapidly throughout my own life. A negative cloud was following me around. I had been exposed to and allowed so much drama and negativity into my life that the energy around me became negative. Once I learned to raise the rent and kick these people out by refusing to partake in conversations with them, the positive energy started to flow back into my life. Things started to fall into place and good things started to come my way.
3.) The Quickest Way To Convince Yourself That Your Doubts Are Valid Is To Speak With Negative People:
Instead of seeking out the people who have the same doubts, I learned to seek out the people who were confident in their decisions and ask them for advice instead. By consulting with the doubters about your decisions you ultimately will get what you’re subconsciously seeking; validation that your doubts are valid.
4.) Public Griping Is The Fastest Way To Sabotage Your Business:
When I first started out as an entrepreneur, I had my fair share of gripes and you can bet I took those to Social Media. It wasn’t until a mentor of mine pointed out how my negativity appeared on the outside to those watching. That advice really made me think about what kind of people I want to attract. Additionally, how am I to get the respect of top leaders if all they see me doing is surrounding myself with negative people and complaining. My choices and my attitude became more clear to me and that’s when I decided to take control of my thoughts and take control of who I choose to let into my life. Once I made that decision and started be someone of inspiration and positivity again…..things started falling into place for me and my business.
So in conclusion, my point is that you do have a choice. You can choose to get sucked into the complaining and breed negativity into your own life or….
You can choose to surround yourself with amazing, positive people.
It’s all up to you!
For me, I learned the lesson long ago…..no matter where you are in your life or business there will always be someone complaining and creating drama. No doubt about that.
There will always be people who will happily play “the victim” role.
My question to you is…..
Will you allow these negative people squash your dreams?
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