You’ve probably been told over and over again that you need to live a happy life and in order to do that you need to remain positive. Hopefully, at the very least, you are doing your very best to lead a positive life and keep yourself happy and healthy outside of work. But what about during the workday? Are you working in a positive environment? Are you doing your best to create a positive environment at work? Hopefully, you said yes to both of these questions, but if you’re sitting here pondering, you might not be working in a positive environment. You might be thinking that if you’re happy outside of work that it won’t become an issue if you aren’t so positive during your shift. But think about this for a moment: Did you know that the average person will spend over 90,000 hours at work? That’s ONE THIRD of your life! 33% of your life will be spent at whatever location you call your workplace, and that’s a lot! Remaining positive in the workplace is going to carry over into your daily life and provide added health benefits. Don’t think this matters? An article by James Clear of jamesclear.com explains how positivity and negativity both affect your brain.
Negative feelings all make your brain react the same way, no matter how small or large the feeling is. In the article, James gives the example of a tiger jumping out in front of you in the woods, you’d be terrified. Your instincts kick in and seemingly all other options other than fight or flight disappear. When negative emotions or thoughts are in your head, your brain kicks out all options except for the “most logical” giving you tunnel vision. The same thing happens when you’re stressed or thinking negatively about your workday or your life. On the flip side, when you’re thinking positively there are many more options available in your brain. The possibilities are literally endless when you’re positive!
Being positive doesn’t just affect you, it affects everyone around you as well. Working in a positive environment increases productivity, lowers employee turnover, and in the end, saves the company time and money. Even if you’re not a manager or supervisor, you can still influence your coworkers with your own optimism and positivity. At The Newsletter Pro, one of their guiding missions is to Accentuate the Positive. They try to find the silver lining in almost everything they do, all while understanding that you can never fully ignore the negative. For them, their attitude of “informed optimism” allows them to get projects done and fix problems quickly without stressing out over the little things. In order to keep this air of optimism, prior to each meeting, each employee in attendance must share something positive happening in their life. It can be as small as “I really enjoyed my lunch today” or “I’m getting my nails done after work” or as large as “I leave for my cruise tomorrow” or “I finally landed the huge account I’ve been working on for months.” By doing this everyone is able to focus on at least one positive thing during their workday, making the environment more open to optimism.
So we challenge you to find at least one positive thing about your day today. Whether it’s work related or not, start thinking about even the littlest things that will make you a little bit happier.