Daily Inspiration: “Abandon those who will drag you down. Find the ones who will lift you up.”

“Abandon those who will drag you down. Find the ones who will lift you up.” – Futurist Jim Carroll

Nothing great was ever achieved through relentless negativity!

Innovative organizations don’t succeed when there are a lot of negative vibes; they succeed when there is positive energy for new ideas. They don’t succeed in an environment of persistent pessimism; they excel when there exists a culture of relentless optimism.  Great ideas never flourish when pessimists are in control. Motivational leadership never happens when a demotivating spirit is in charge. It happens within the boundless enthusiasm driven by the rocket fuel of positivity.

I’ve never seen any corporate innovation or transformation succeed when a swirl of negativity surrounds the process. I’ve never seen a team move forward based on a foundation of pessimistic thinking. I’ve never witnessed leadership success when the tone at the top is tainted with the stink of gloominess and the destructive force of despair. And yet, many organizations and the leadership teams that are there to move them forward never get into the right mindset – the sewage of the negative attitude provides a consistent stink that overwhelms the potential for success. The result is dysfunction, failure, and marginal progress.

The simple fact is this – the corporate culture that drives an organization forward or backward flows directly from the energy within the team. A successful team will share ideas, opinions, suggestions, and concepts as a tool to move forward – criticism is constructive, not abhorred. Negative teams? They get lost in a swirl of negative feedback that leads to a self-perpetuating swirl of failure. A successful team has a culture that is warm, welcoming, and open to tomorrow; a negative team has a mindset that is toxic, ugly, and stuck within the confines of yesterday. Positive people learn from their failures, while a negative team tries to avoid them. The optimists – the positive people – try to take on hard tasks, giving it their best shot; negative teams find excuses to not put in the effort, and seek the path of least resistance that always leads to marginal results.

Success always comes down to the tone at the top, and the mindset of the leadership team – and of the individuals within the team. it’s the difference between the relentless optimism of positive people and the toxic gloominess of negative people.

Positive people seek out the success of others as a foundation for learning, while negative people lose their future in a swirl of jealous negativity generated by their anger at those who do succeed. Positive people see the success around them as rocket fuel for their own creativity, while negative people view that success as something that amplifies their own failure. Positive people believe in themselves; negative people have little confidence in what they can do.

Positive people are inspiring, motivating, and emotionally rewarding; but to spend time with a negative person is akin to spending time with a rock – there is not a lot of interaction or movement, because they are stuck in place. Positive people are thinking about tomorrow, negative people are longing for yesterday.  Positive people chase big ideas, bold visions, and vast opportunities; negative people are stuck within their small minds, never getting beyond their small visions. Positive people chase continual improvement; negative people hide from mistakes and try to cover them up. Positive people focus on the need for change; negative people try to hide from change. Positive people sped critical energy in trying to assess threats and challenges; negative people run from them.

Positive people always chase the opportunities of tomorrow. Negative people do everything they can to cling to the vanishing realities of yesterday. Positive people work to build a better future. Negative people try to sabotage it. Positive people spend their time painting pictures of hope for a better day tomorrow; negative people craft a tale of negativity with the purpose of scaring people as to what tomorrow might bring. Positive people find the ideas that permit them to relentlessly move forward. Negative people make excuses that permit their inaction.

Positive people see through the veneer of false, boastful leadership; negative people fall into the cult of delusion, the madness of hate, the petty vindictiveness of grievance, believing that the wave of the arm of a false idol can make things great again.

Positive people give off positive vibes. Negative people are simply a drag to be around.

Positive people lift you up – negative people drag you down.