I have been thinking a lot about this very subject. So many of my clients could use your 4 steps (I’ll pass on a link to them). I tell them to stop watching the news and start living life or their own terms, but it is a hard battle. People seem to be drawn to Constant Negative New (CNN) as you put it.

I remember how I once fell into the negative side of things. I started out as a high school teacher (over 20 years ago) and I was listening to all the Negative Water Cooler Talk. So many of the teachers were talking about how bad things were and how impossible it was to teach the kids anymore. No one listened, no one had any respect, the parents wouldn’t help, the administration wouldn’t help, on and on and on. Well, I bought into it until one day I had a student ask me, “Do you ever smile?”.

Bam! I was hit hard. I couldn’t believe that my students never saw me smile. Surely this isn’t me! I couldn’t believe I had succumbed to all the negative complaining. Right then and there I made a promise to myself that I would never leave a student without a smile.

It was amazing what happened. I taught for another 6 years and never had a bad day! Nothing changed but my attitude. It was the same students, the same parents, and the same administration, But I was different. And it made all the difference in the world.

You are absolutely right, Diana, “Your Attitude is Showing”.

Larry Kevin
The Actionator!