Nobody likes negative people. Spending time with a negative person is like an hour at the bloodbank where you sit there and a nurse inserts a needle in your arm and they drain your blood. Your lifeforce slowly ebbs away into a plastic bag and when it's over you feel a little weary and fuzzy in the head.
Super positive people can be just as bad for your health. Spending time with them is more like running 10 kilometres in 40 degree heat. It's hard to keep going, it's painful and it's exhausting. At some point you feel like staggering off the course and calling it quits because you feel like you can't go on.
I prefer to focus on the positive. A wise man has suggested that we should let our minds dwell on whatever is lovely, beautiful, noble, praiseworthy or excellent, and that we should be thankful for what we have rather than moan about what we don't have.
This theory can be difficult to put into practice.For one thing it is easier to find fault and to complain. Especially in some circumstances. It requires great effort of will to remain positive and yet avoid a complete denial of reality.
Earlier this week I flew to Melbourne for business. It was a great opportunity for me to further my career and in the wash up will provide me with some more work and some invaluable experience. However it wasn't long into my six and half hour journey home that the shine started to fade.The return trip involved two taxi rides, two train rides and the flight. The actual flight takes less than an hour. You barely hit cruising speed and altitude when the captain announces it's time to land.If the plane had picked me up from the meeting and delivered me home to my front door, it really would have been a quick trip.
You see how easy it is. I could have kept that last paragraph rolling on. I could have turned it into two or three paragraphs of woe about my long road home. It really sucked. I had good trip overall and I'm really glad I went but when I walked in the front door after six and a half hours of travelling, I felt flatter than a pancake.
How can I tell the tale of my voyage to Melbourne without the bad stuff? If I just talk about what was good, then I'm not presenting the whole picture. How can I talk about what was bad without sounding like a whinger? I probably already do.
No comments:
Post a Comment