Every single thought you allow in your mind has a ripple effect on not only the way you act but the things you invite into your life. This principle applies to family, love, health, happiness and even work.
Today, I thought I’d talk about the impact of positive thinking and attitude on our working environment, our professional achievements and the success of our business.
The Poison of Negativity
Those who’ve been able to control negativity in their minds and focus on the positive have reaped the benefits: Happiness. Success. Love. And the list goes on.
The No. 1 rule that such people tell us over and over again is not to believe in limitation. Don’t give in to negative thoughts. Belief in limitation creates limitation. These false beliefs block motivation and harvest fear.
We all do it. It’s unavoidable sometimes. Every business has faced this at some point or another, whether it’s on a smaller scale or has become a part of the culture.“Not possible.” “I can’t.” These are all thoughts that literally make it impossible to be successful in your working environment. What I’m about to say might be cliché, but if there’s a will, there’s a way.
If you approach your business endeavors with an attitude of “I can” and “I will,” you can change the path of your success. You can even change the course of your company, the success of your clients and the colleagues around you.
Creating a Successful Working Environment
Sometimes the biggest challenge once you’ve mastered your own belief system, is rallying the people around you. This has been a challenge for professionals and leaders trying to create powerful teams for countless years.
How do you create success in an environment where you have all different types of personalities in one place who are experiencing different realities, while also sometimes dealing with the “system” you’re working in, and the perceived limitations your company, clients, whoever or whatever is opposing on you. Notice I said “perceived” limitations.
Roadblock
I’m not going to lie and say it’s easy. There are many factors that play into someone’s happiness with his or her work environment. But the change starts with you.
If you take responsibility for your own self, your own actions, your own work, your own attitude every single day, and you make it the best that you can, you are going to overcome roadblocks.
There’s no way you cannot overcome challenges when you take responsibility for being the best professional you can be.
If you ever feel frustrated with the people you work with, your clients, your boss, your company, you are allowing yourself to be dictated by things that really have no control over you. Once you give those things attention, once you give into the notion that things can’t change, they won’t change.
Make a vow not to accept other’s ideas of how things are, and pave the way of how you know it can be. No matter how big of a problem you are facing at work, the minute you believe that there is a solution, and that you are willing to take it on, your professional success will come.
“But the people I work with,” you say.
What if you’re in a poisonous work environment? What if you feel you’re at the end of your rope, there’s no way you can fix the system? You are totally convinced that you’re fine but the people around you are the problem.
Congratulations, you’ve just created another limitation for yourself. Leaders in their work environment will always seek to find a way to motivate people, to find solutions until something works.
And I’m not just talking about people in positions of leadership. Whatever role you’re in, take accountability. Make it have an impact.
Believing in Others, Too
A funny thing happens when you start to believe in your colleagues, your staff, the people you work with. (Yes, you are believing in them, not just yourself.)
No matter how inexperienced they might be, no matter how difficult they might be, no matter what the circumstances are, when you begin to believe that people can achieve, they start to believe in themselves. They start to achieve. When you reach out from a place of willingness, things begin to happen.
I speak from experience. Over the years, I’ve been fortunate to be surrounded by people like this in my working environments.
I myself i have risen from a simple poor man’s son to a self driven man, I believe this was due to not only characteristics of my own, but also because certain people believed in me.
I was green. Very green. And trying to learn the success world as quickly as it was flying at me. But it didn’t matter to them. They kept giving me new challenges that they thought I could handle. And I did. I might not have believed that I could do it if I didn’t have the chance.
Then, when I became a manager, I was able to extend the support that I had learned to help people on my team grow. It became a positive chain reaction that continues to add value to the workplace. And it just takes one to start it.
The next time you have a negative thought about how something isn’t working in the workplace and in life don’t give it any attention. It’s that attention that fuels it.
Immediately replace it with a positive statement in your mind about who you are, what you’ve set out to do, what you believe in and what your goals for success are.
When you exude an attitude of enthusiasm and willingness, it can create immeasurable value to your workplace.
Lead by example. Do not underestimate the power of your person. But don’t forget the power of two or three or four people all working to create an environment of success.
When someone says “no,” you say “yes.” When someone says it’s impossible, politely smile as you think of all the ways you are going to make it possible. You are what you think you are. You are responsible for the success you create in the workplace and in life
Nicholas Quest - Uganda. 