by Paul Casey
From the moment you wake up every day, it can seem like life really conspires to mess you up. Maybe you got up this morning and it’s cold and you don’t like the cold. Maybe the traffic is terrible. Maybe the baby was crying all night long, whatever. Maybe your kids are now being homeschooled and they are running amok in the house. There are all these things that life does to derail you if you allow it to derail you.
So think about it. If you’re getting up in the morning and you have a really important day ahead of you, you have to consciously put aside all the things the universe is throwing at you, to try and screw you up and make you unhappy from the get-go.
It’s a conscious decision to push aside anything that may negatively impact your mood. Let’s face it we can’t control external factors, right? You can’t control the weather. You can’t control the baby crying. We’ve all tried. You can’t control the traffic. You can’t control all these external factors. But there are actually some factors within your actual control that you can choose that affect how you’re going to show up on a particular day.
When I interviewed Leigh Brown from South Carolina on my Sales POP! show, she actually brought up an interesting concept around social media. She said that when she has an important day ahead of her, an important meeting, she actively does not look at her social media.
I was wondering why is that, and she explained, “Because who knows what shows up there?” So say for instance you’ve got your big meeting today. You go on social media and then you see your wife’s ex-boyfriend who she happens to be friendly with on Facebook has just bought a yacht and you are not having the best year. I mean how is that going to make you feel? Or you see your husband’s ex-girlfriend just bought a Ferrari and your car broke down yesterday. It’s not going to put you in a great mood, right?
So the chances are there are things going to show up that are going to maybe negatively impact your mood. So the best thing to do is ignore it. Don’t check your social media. Keep yourself in a good space.
Same as with the news today. You can survive a day without news. Because let’s face it, whatever side of the political spectrum you’re on, you will find something in the news that will annoy the whatever out of you on a daily basis and probably make you angry and again, get you in a bad space.
So there are things that you can’t control which are many external factors, but there are things that you can absolutely control yourself–and those are the influences that you allow come in from the outside.
So here’s a piece of advice. When you get up in the morning, don’t check your social media. Ignore the news and keep yourself in a positive headspace for the big meeting or whatever engagement you have. You can even meditate if you want. It’s up to you. But just like you would feel pretty bad if you ate a liter of ice cream and 5 bars of chocolate for breakfast, you need to avoid eating mental junk food, too.
And another thing to consider. Did you know that 70 percent of self-talk on a daily basis is negative? And this has been psychologically proven in research. Seventy percent of your self-talk every day is negative. So think about when you were going about your day, and you’ve got some important event coming up, that 70 percent of the chatter inside your head is telling you negative things and so you have to actually confront that. You have to actually take that voice in your head and actively quiet it. You have to acknowledge it’s there. It’s telling you negative things. Acknowledge it. Quiet it and then replace it.
There are many ways you can do this – perhaps you call somebody. Maybe you’re on your way to the meeting. Maybe you call somebody who always puts you in a good mood. Somebody who always pumps you up, or maybe you put on some music that always uplifts and energizes you.
But it’s something that you should be very aware of and acknowledge the fact is that 70 percent of your self- talk is going to be negative. So you’ve got to flip it and really focus on the 30 percent. So start your day, every day with a healthy diet of positivity!
John Golden / Chief Strategy & Marketing Officer / john.golden@
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