Be Positive

Hey Team. Happy Wednesday team. Here we go. Another Wednesday Workshop. So it’s February and today I want to talk about how well you see.

What kind of lens are you looking through?

I recently read John Maxwell book and he talks about the fact that we, through our experiences and what we have learned through experience and process and the environment is the lens through which we see people and see situations.

He tells a story about an old man that’s sitting in front of a bridge, on a bench outside of a little town. And a traveler comes by and he says to the old man, he says, “What are the people like in this town?” And the old man says, “What were the people like where you came from?” He says, “Oh, they were horrible.” “They were untrustworthy.” “Liars, cheaters, manipulators.” “They were just awful.” I mean, you couldn’t trust pretty much anybody. They always talk about you behind your back and so on and so on. And the old man looked at him and he said, “Yeah, you’ll find people like that here, too.” And so the guy went off a little discouraged.

Not soon after, another man comes across the bridge and he looks at the man and he says, “Hey, well, what are the people like in this town?” And he says to him, he says, “What were the people like in the town you just came from?” He says, “Oh, they were amazing.” “So trusting and so forgiving.” “It was great.” “I mean, everybody was nice.” “Shop owners always said hi.” And he goes on and on about all this. And so the old man looks at him and he says, “You’re going to find people just like that in this town.”

The moral of the story is what you’re looking for is what you’re going to get.

If you come into a job with a standoffish attitude, if you come into a project with a standoffish attitude, if you’re looking at others and believing that the worst in somebody else. Well, you kind of get what you expect.

I have done that my life. I have gotten very sullen, very upset. You know, I mean, it’s tough being a leader sometimes in the respect of you want to care and you want to give so much to people. And some people fall short of your expectations, no matter how much you try to raise them up, encourage people. But sometimes people will let you down.

At some point in my life, I have found myself believing that people were going to do that.

So I would try to set up policy or directives and so on and so forth. It became a list of rules and laws. And it just doesn’t always work. But some policies that we have are for good reason, safety, things like that. And other policies sometimes have been created over time because qe get pissed off at somebody else. You probably do the same thing, maybe towards me, maybe towards the company, maybe towards one of your other leaders. Maybe at a past job, you’ve done this.

I would like to encourage you as we move into February. Since it happens to be Valentine’s love month. That you start thinking about and looking for more positive things in others, in me and your fellow leaders and your fellow workers that you work with out there in the team.

Start looking upward instead of downward.

Be like the second traveler. See the best in people. Believe the best. That you’re going to find the best and you might just actually find it.

All right, guys. Motivational, I hope Wednesday. I hope that you got something out of this. If you did, #ISeeFine. All right. Send something back to Lindsay. Remember, I’m wanting as many people to see this, so talk to somebody else. Say, “Hey, you should watch Chad’s Wednesday workshop. You should watch Chad’s Monday workshop.” If you can get five people to do that Monday and Wednesday. Bam! You’re in the raffle for 50 bucks a February.

All right, guys. God bless you. Look forward to seeing you out there on the street or in the office. I’ll talk to you next week.