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About Negative Experiences:
Many people use an unhealthy/dysfunctional childhood as an excuse for acting in an inappropriate or acceptable way today.
- Regardless of the past, however, each of us can choose the kind of life we want to build for ourselves now. We can decide to reprogram ourselves with new, positive directions rather than allow past experiences, negative feelings, prejudices, putdowns, and myths to affect our present-day behavior.
- Past negative experiences cannot and should not be used to excuse present negative behavior. People are tired of dealing with other people who constantly act like victims.
- The measure of our character is not how we handle ourselves when life is easy but how we rise above the unfairness of life and make healthy, ethical choices that benefit others and ourselves at any given moment.
- We can choose to refuse to let an unhealthy past govern our present life.
- One of the most effective ways to enhance the image we have of ourselves as well as how others view us is to increase our self-esteem.
Until next time...
Sheryl Tuchman, SPHR, SHRM-SCP
http://tools2succeed.com/
Persuasion and Empathy
A key to Emotional Intelligence is the ability to understand another's perspective and be able to persuade others to adopt our viewpoints. We all see the world differently as we have different backgrounds, experiences, education. Putting yourself "in another's shoes" is not easy. Think about how someone may view a situation differently than you do.
Have you seen the "Old Woman/Young Woman" diagram? Click here to view. What do you see? An old woman? A young woman? Both?
It is possible for you to see one thing and for someone else to see something different, yet both of you can be right! Think about perspective when you are communicating and persuading. How can you look at the situation differently? Bring your team together and discuss perspective. Have one or more team members choose a topic and try to convince the rest of the team to adopt his/her viewpoint. What challenges come up? How can the individual and the team overcome them?
Fun with Negativity
- Discuss the consequences of being negative. Being negative can be a way of resisting reality. When we learn to accept the realities of our lives that are challenging, they no longer have the power to dominate and make us miserable. We can free ourselves to be positive.
- Have a contest to see who can be the most negative! Have volunteers act out being negative.
- Encourage the volunteers to exaggerate. The observers applaud each volunteer. The volunteer with the loudest applause wins.
- Discuss ways to find the positive aspects of our realities.
- Repeat the contest with the same volunteers, this time asking them to act out the same situations, being as positive as possible.
Until next time...
Sheryl Tuchman, SPHR, SHRM-SCP
http://tools2succeed.com/
Negative thoughts create more unnecessary work for everyone, keeping us from focusing on what needs to be done and how to do it effectively. Negativism can also drain creativity, weaken enthusiasm for doing a good job, increase fatigue and irritability, and encourage people to give up. Giving up means feeling like a victim instead of taking responsibility and remaining proactive.
There are three areas of well-being that make each of us who we are: our physical self, our intellectual self, and our emotional self. It is our responsibility to keep ourselves physically, mentally and emotionally healthy. We may be able to eliminate some negative feelings simply by taking good care of ourselves and living a more balanced life.
To work smarter and better, we need to set aside the time to take care of ourselves. Create a healthy balance of exercise, sufficient sleep, good eating habits and positive thinking. Making the commitment to these activities now will lead to a payoff of better health as well as productivity.
Until next time...
Sheryl Tuchman, SPHR, SHRM-SCP
http://tools2succeed.com/
