Your mood is contagious

The fundamental aspect to best performance is attitude. No matter how much knowledge, skills, expertise you possess, a positive attitude is something that we all need to have to succeed.

The words in our head (scripts) need to be positive to feel good:

It’s a good year and I feel great.
I am enjoying my work.
I love my job.
I am pleased to be here today.
Life feels good!
There’s lots to do but I can do it!

But too often at work we have negative scripts:

I feel stressed most of the time.
I wish I had a better job.
I should be more successful.
I am bored – I can’t get motivated.
There is no time to relax.
I’m not good at…

And these become contagious to others around us:

I’m in a bad mood – it pulls you down.
I’m upset – you get upset.
I’m angry – you get angry.
Management sucks – yes others agree and start saying it.
This won’t work – yes, it’s all a waste of time.

The reciprocity factor is there so we need to be positive and constructive:

I’m calm – you are calm.
I listen – you listen.
I persist – you persist with me.

So when we have negative thinking patterns we need to know how to rework them:

• I am angry this has happened.
• I will get over this and move on.
• I am unhappy in this situation.
  
• I will make changes and stop complaining.
• I feel overwhelmed.
  
• I will get one small thing done and then I will feel better.

You can use this skill of editing and rewriting your thinking to achieve all sorts of goals.

GOAL: I want to be able to speak in public with confidence.

1. Audit your scripts
POSITIVES: I will feel great. It will improve my job prospects. I get asked a lot so it will make life easier.
NEGATIVES: I hate talking in front of any group larger than four or five people. I am not a good public speaker. I fear going blank. I get nervous with tricky questions. I feel really freaked at the possibility of the CEO being there.

2. Edit your negative scripts
I will learn to enjoy speaking in public. I will keep practising to reduce my fear and increase my skill. I will get some coaching to help me. Each talk I will imagine people clapping at the end of it.

3. Make it a habit
I will find a course/coach to help me. I will keep persisting and stop the negative thinking. I will find someone else at work who also wants to develop these skills so I have a buddy to do this with. I will be brave and ASK for speaking opportunities.

It’s a matter of changing our thinking patterns and developing confidence and persistence.

We all know this. We can all do it.

Eve Ash is co-author of Rewrite Your Life! and Rewrite Your Relationships and a producer of a wide range of resources (www.7dimensions.com.au) including Successful Thinking Habits.