Exclude Negative Thinking

This is part 9 of a 12 part series that I call the 12 X’s of Leadership.

“Can you believe there is nothing chocolate on the dessert buffet!

You pay this kind of money and you certainly expect to have at least one chocolate item!

This buffet has certainly gone down hill since the last time I was here!

I cannot believe this!”

Have you ever known someone who whenever they open their mouth, something negative comes out? I just want to smack them! I don’t have many pet peeves, but this is one of them.

  • Whiners.
  • Complainers.
  • Naysayers.

These are the people who could have been given tickets to the Super Bowl on the 50-yard line and then complain that the team logo, in the center of the field, is facing the other direction.

It doesn’t matter what the setting is, they will find something to complain about, grumble over, or belittle.

Many of these people think they are being funny. But the truth is they are simply sabotaging the atmosphere around them…and you need to avoid them. Why? Because attitude is contagious and these folks will destroy the culture and climate around them and slowly suck the life out of relationships.

As I write this blog I am in Morgantown, WV, sitting in a very nice restaurant. The “Saturday Night Prime Rib and Crab Leg Buffet” is the weekly hot spot for fine dining in the area.

Seated at the table next to me was a woman who had been grumbling for 10 minutes that there was nothing chocolate on the dessert portion of the buffet.

Clearly, her dinner companions got fed up with her and just wanted her to shut her pie hole (I know, sorry, bad pun). I watched their evening slowly dissipate into a very negative experience.

After hearing all that talk about chocolate, I was in the mood for some too. I asked my waiter about the lack of chocolate on the buffet and he said, “Let me see what I can do for you.” He came back a moment later and asked if I would like chocolate cake or chocolate ice cream—I got both.

What is amazing is that many times the very things people are complaining about, they could actually do something to correct. But rather than try to do something to rectify the situation they prefer to grumble and whine.

While it is easy to see this in others, be careful that it does not worm its way into your life.

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