Negativity Is Unproductive

When I was promoted two years ago, I felt a lot of pressure to be confident, in charge, and to show what I knew. A lot of the time my assertiveness ended up coming off as aggressive and negative. I was still learning how to be comfortable in a new role and I now know that being negative doesn’t get anyone anywhere.

The negativity around politics, around the pandemic – it’s all very valid, but we can’t just throw our hands up and say oh well. We can’t just accept it and be sad about it and make no progress. Constant negativity is so unproductive. It makes you feel bad and it makes the people around you feel bad.

I have been around so many people in life who feel they need to pair every positive with a negative. Who harp on perfection, that things should be a certain way, but more specifically that things should be their way.

I’ve never said I’m a positive person, I harbor a lot of negativity, I’ve always said I’m more of a realistic person. But in the past 5 years I’ve come to realize that small wins are so important. Of course, everyone wants a big one, everyone wants perfectionism, everyone wants things the way that they want them. But that’s not life and I refuse to be dragged down by someone who doesn’t celebrate small wins. Who can’t let people have their time to shine.

Bringing people down doesn’t lift you up, you need to be your own ray of sunshine and stay away from those who can’t let you have your moment without bringing in some kind of negativity.