Leader Publications

By STEPHANIE SALISBURY

We see it every day: angry drivers, rude customers, complaints as Facebook statuses, depressing news on television.

It seems like we’re drowning, doesn’t it?  We live in a massive sea of negativity and sometimes it’s a struggle to keep our head out of the water.

Have you ever noticed that, once a complaint session begins, it’s tremendously difficult to end?  People join in the conversation to add their own tirades, and the sea of negativity just grows wider.

Wouldn’t it be incredible if happiness could go viral?

All we need for that to happen is for each of us to pull our heads out of the water, no matter how difficult it is, and never look back. Smile when someone’s driving you crazy. Refrain from dumping everything that goes wrong onto the social media; post something that makes you laugh instead. Give someone twice as big a tip as you normally would.  Think of the personality traits of someone you respect and are drawn to —chances are, if you emulate them, people will respect and be drawn to you as well.

Encourage your friends to follow your lead of this new positive outlook.  Ask them to make a game of it with you.

I’m starting this on my Journey Facebook Page and if we work together, we can infuse some positivity into our lives and the lives of our friends. Post this status: “Let’s see how long a list of blessings we can come up with — comment below!” It can be something as deep as “The unconditional love of my spouse” or something as simple as “It’s pumpkin pie Blizzard season at Dairy Queen!”

Join the Positive Party — we could start a revolution!