Positive ways to stop being negative

Do you ever feel bad? Does anyone working with you feel emotional or angry?

Let’s explore the kind of feelings that can impact your work negatively and what kind of mindset scripts can help you work around those feelings to get back on track. Be your own psychologist.

Recognise those bad feelings

What may be lurking and disrupting a positive workflow by blocking those good feelings we need to feel about our daily work? Common culprits are:

• Anxiety
• Fear
• Anger
• Stress

Do you find yourself thinking or speaking under the influence of these emotions? Or do those around you say similar things to the examples listed below?

Identify these negative thoughts and then consider the constructive thoughts that you need to re-program to help manage or overcome this unproductive thinking. Rewrite the bad feelings and their typical expressions as follows:

Anxiety

I’m so worried

I’m nervous

I’m freaking out

This makes me very anxious

I get worried just thinking about this.

The aim is to construct positive constructive thoughts to suit you. For example, to handle the above bad feelings try developing some new thoughts like:

It’s normal to feel scared, but I will be OK.

I will get through this.

I can manage – it is only a short time.

I will breathe deeply and focus on getting tasks done.

Fear

I’m scared  

It’s normal to feel scared, but I will be OK.

I don’t want to be here

I will do what I need to then leave.

Something bad might happen

I will not waste energy on worrying.

They’re not going to like my work

It will be good to get feedback on my work so I can keep improving.

I might fail

I will make sure I do the best I can.

This is going to be awful

I am wasting time worrying.

Anger

I am so angry – I hate working with him

I will change the way I think so we improve our relationship.

I’m seething inside

I am going to focus on positives not negatives.

I feel cheated

I will only allow myself to feel bad for five minutes.

This infuriates me

I am going to smile and move forward.

I am so angry about this situation

I will do the best I can and focus on getting the best outcome.

Stress

I’m overloaded

I have a lot to do but I will get through it bit by bit. 

There’s too much to do

I am going to do one task right now to feel better.

I’m not coping

I am going to talk to someone I trust and reset my priorities.

I just can’t do everything

I will complete what I can now, then decide on the rest.

I am not going to cope

I am determined to do the best I can

I can’t handle this

I can manage myself to get through this then feel proud of myself.

I’m a wreck

I will go for a walk and refresh myself to keep going.

Mold your mindset

Try listing your top three bad feelings, then write new thinking patterns that are constructive and will help, not hinder. Help others in your team to use this strategy.

In sum, don’t let bad feelings hold you back from your best performance.

Don’t wait for bad feelings to get worse.

It’s normal to have bad feelings but when they get too out of control they can make us start to hate going to work and impact our lives very negatively.

We can mould our minds into a mess, a mushroom or a mountain of strength. It’s up to you!

Eve Ash is a psychologist, author, filmmaker, public speaker and entrepreneur. She runs Seven Dimensions, a company specialising in training resources for the workplace.