Who do you listen to?
I ask you this, because everything that you pay attention to has an influence on you, to a lesser or greater degree. This is why it’s so important to be selective about the people we connect with. In business, these “voices” can be the difference between massive success and total commercial failure.
This brief post is about the influence that pessimists and optimists have on us.
Pessimistic voices
Business owners, who listen to enough pessimistic voices, find it hard to remain positive. That’s because the influence of pessimists, makes it all too easy for us during the winters of our business lives, to think that summer will never arrive. All of us get disheartened from time to time and when this happens, the last thing we need is someone bringing us down further. And then, when times are great, the pessimist will tell us that it won’t last – than doom and gloom are around the corner.
Pessimists seldom achieve anything positive, because opportunities have a habit of avoiding them. It’s not that the opportunities don’t exist for them, but the pessimist mindset is blind to the potential for gain. Little wonder that for pessimists, the future is something that should be faced with apprehension.
We simply can not allow the toxic impact of pessimists to influence our lives, if we want to be happy, healthy or wealthy.
Optimistic voices
Business owners, who listen to enough optimistic voices, find themselves expecting the best. Now, as we tend to get from life what we expect, it makes sense to expect the best right?
Optimism is like a virus. It’s infectious. I tell you, spend 20 minutes speaking with an informed optimist and it’s as refreshing as a good night’s sleep! Spend that same amount of time listening to a pessimist complaining, and you will feel tense and stressed.
Optimism isn’t about going through life or business without a plan, blindly expecting the best; it’s about believing that whatever happens, there’s a way to turn it around, to make things better.
Optimism breeds confidence; both internally and externally. It encourages people to see our dreams and believe in them. An optimist with the right plan can achieve pretty-much anything. Give that same plan to a pessimist and they won’t even read it. They will just say; “what’s the point?”
The bottom line: By deliberately listening to the right influences, we can make our business (and our lives) a lot easier, less stressful and more rewarding!
