The majority of us experience an issue and become crippled. We’ll shut down mentally and physically. We can have plans, work to do, people depending on us and still fold. Why? We have not built the skill to work in negative states. We can only work at optimal levels when things are fine. This scenario is not a great recipe for success. Life will not give us a smooth surface when attempting to complete tasks all the time. As counterproductive as it seems, we shouldn’t want our roads to be unchallenging. Yes, we may accomplish our goal, but we didn’t improve our abilities in any way. The bigger the goal or accomplishment, the bigger the issues will be along the way and the more frequently we’ll be forced to complete tasks in negative states. We’ll either need to embrace this or be okay with small, easily attainable goals.
How can we prepare for working in negative states? First, we need to force ourselves to work in negative states. Reading and writing that sentence is astronomically easier than this task will be. We will not go from not being able to complete tasks at all to operating as if nothing negative occurred. It will be an incremental improvement. How many increments are needed will be based on our personal ability to push ourselves? This struggle is a private matter. We shouldn’t feel down if we are going slow. Eventually, we will be knocking out our “to-do” list regardless of unexpected negatives. Celebrate the improvement instead of focusing on the distance from the desired destination. With the steady enhancement, we’ll get there.
Let’s get into some specifics. Let’s say you write a weekly column on a popular relationship website every Friday. You get into an argument with your partner Thursday. You happen to write your column on Thursday night. What do you do? If it was a personal blog, it would not have gotten done. Since we are committing to baby steps and others are depending on us, we find a way to push through. Great, but how? One method is to use your negative. In this case, you can write about moving forward in relationships after a disagreement. It may be one of your best pieces because you are going through it. Let’s say you are a painter, sculptor, or musician and recently experienced a significant loss. Instead of not touching a paintbrush, clay, or instrument while you grieve, we will now use that pain to produce a piece of art to be shared with the world forever. This piece also indirectly allows the inspiration of your art to have an inkling of them live in perpetuity. Remember, greatness can come from both exceptional and strenuous times.
In closing, don’t cheat yourself or the world. Learn to work in negative states of mind. Life will not always be smooth. We unlock the potential for excellence to be bred from anything the world gives us once we gain the skill of being able to work in any mind state. Life supplies us with a wealth of experiences. It would be a shame if we could only flourish based on positive ones? Luckily, that is not the case.
Food for thought…You do the dishes!
