Banish Negative Thoughts Before They Take Hold

We all know we need to keep a positive attitude to feel good about the world and our place in it. But it’s so easy for negative thoughts and attitudes to sneak through the cracks when we’re not paying attention. Like weeds in a garden, once a negative thought sneaks in, it tries to take over. Before you know it, your mental space is overgrown with negative weeds.

Perfection is unattainable

There isn’t such a thing as perfection. Trying to create it or achieve it not only leads to endless frustration it also wastes incredible swaths of time. Beyond that, the inability to reach the sought for perfection leaves us feeling not good enough.

Get what you’re working on to the best point you can then stop. Congratulate yourself on a job well done and go on to the next thing.

Waiting for the worst

All of us know the old adage assume the worst, hope for the best. If you go around assuming the worst, you are essentially waiting for it to show up. What if you don’t assume anything? If you simply wait and see what happens without assigning it judgement of any kind.

Release the need for control

We all make elaborate plans trying to control for any contingency. Invariably something goes awry. It’s good to plan and prepare. It’s also important to realize that things simply have a way of going in other directions. And that’s often okay.

When things don’t go as planned turn the negative self-talk off.  Instead of trying to make the problem work for you, work the problem. See what new directions you can take and go with the flow.

Recognize how much of a time drain worry is

Worry is one of the most insidious, difficult to control weeds in your thought garden. It sneaks in, gets hold and starts growing everywhere. The thing about worry is, it does absolutely nothing to change a situation or help. It robs you of sleep and distracts you from searching out positive solutions.

As soon as you notice the first worried though sprout in your garden, pluck it. Worry is all about what if? Tell yourself you will deal with whatever happens, when it happens. In the meantime, you have other things to think about.

Avoid Weak Answers to Greatest Weakness Question

You’re excited about your upcoming job interview. Your qualifications match up with the job description. You’ve had your eye on this company for a while and you believe the experiences you bring to the table can be of great benefit to the organization. There’s only one thing you’re worried about. The greatest weakness question. You don’t know whether or not they’ll ask it, but you’ve never felt comfortable answering it when it’s come up in the past.

Not really looking for weaknesses

The interviewer isn’t asking the question to determine what possible issues they’ll have to deal with by bringing you on. Rather they want to see how you handle demanding,  awkward or uncomfortable situations. Can you recognize when something needs to be changed or addressed? Are you someone who focuses on problems or solutions? 

Find what’s positive in the negative

If for instance you’ve had issues prioritizing in the past, don’t answer with I have trouble with organization. Talk about how you recognized the problem and steps you took to improve. When I began my last job, I had trouble finishing my allotted tasks on time. I realized I my attention was being diverted with less significant time-consuming issues like answering emails and returning phone calls. I learned to prioritize my days by focusing on the most important undertakings first and created daily schedules for attention diverting tasks so they would stop interrupting the flow of my days.

There is room for improvement in everyone

The worst thing you can do with this question is to avoid it by saying you’ve been working on yourself for so long and so hard you don’t have a weakness. Or nothing springs immediately to mind. Next worst are when you try and turn a positive trait into a negative. My job ends up taking priority over the rest of my life. Those kinds of answers sound insincere and dishonest.

Before going into the interview think long and hard about situations you’ve overcome and how. Incorporate your greatest weakness answer into one of those.

Small Moments String A Life Together

The quote, “Do small things with great love,” has been attributed to Mother Teresa, but there is dispute as to whether she said it or not. Who actually said it first is a small detail in big picture.

Small moments that string together to form a life

As we focus on the milestones of our lives, the big goals we are trying to achieve, commitments we need to meet, the thousand things we have to do each day blur into the background.

What we sometimes lose track of is how important those small moments are. They are where we spend the majority of our lives. The time we spend with the barista in the coffee shop. Interacting with our co-workers. Answering the barrage of emails and texts we receive every day.

Often times we rush through them half-heartedly while thinking about the future or the past. Things that need to get done, old grievances, future discussions.  With our minds distracted by things future and things past and things that may never be, our lives pass by without notice.

How you approach one thing is how you approach everything

When you rush through the seemingly insignificant moments without paying much attention, you are essentially not paying attention to your life.

Imagine giving your full focus and dedication to everything that comes your way. Imagine giving it your love. If each moment is infused with love and attention, that focus automatically flows out into the larger aspects of your life. It is said how you do one thing is how you do all everything.

Infusing each moment and interaction with attention and dedication and love, infuses your whole life with the same. Also the lives of everyone you touch along the way!