Do you receive or generate negativity?
Photo by Manlio_k
Photo by Manlio_k
There have been times in my life when it was difficult for me to be positive. In a negative environment when every action or word seems to carry venom, maintaining a positive outlook is difficult. That is one of the problems with working. You can’t control the environment or the people you deal with. It is different when you retire because you can control the it all.
Retirement is a new beginning
It is easy to look at retirement as continuation of the life that you lived as an employee but it is wrong and so limiting to accept and continue those patterns. We make adjustments as an employee because we do not control very much about life. We can’t control when we work, where we work, how much we make and who we associate with. In truth, there isn’t very much that we can control and so we cope. We accept and tolerate what we do not want and if we are not careful, we become part of the problem. We become generators of negativity.
Negativity makes us blind to opportunities
Negativity can take over our actions and make us defensive and suspicious. Negativity can limit the possibilities that we recognize around us. Negativity can blind us to the fact that we are generating negativity to protect against the environment. We see that the world around us in negative and are blind to our own negativity. If that is the kind of work environment you experienced you are going to take the defenses you learned with you when you retire. You are going to assume that you still have no control or ability to create the retirement that you desire. And you are going to miss the opportunity to make your retirement outrageous because you are wrong.
Break the cage of negativity
When you retire, you regain control of your life because only you make the important decisions about where and what you do with your time, who you associate with and where you live. If you have turned into a generator of negative thoughts, you will never recognize these opportunities and stay in the cage of negativity that you created when you worked. You limit your possibilities. The patterns and behaviors that you developed to protect you from negative surroundings keep you from seeing the opportunities around you when you retire. It limits what you will consider as possible. Your retirement wishes will be puny, weak little shoots rather than mighty oaks reaching to the heavens.
Break out and make your retirement wishes outrageous
Take some time in your retirement – or better yet- as you plan your retirement- to think about yourself and your attitudes. Do you expect good things to happen to you or have you been conditioned to believe that only bad things will come your way. Do you have exciting dreams about your retirement or do you only see a dreary continuation of the negative life while you worked.? If you are negative, give yourself a boost by reading a good book to get you thinking positively and drop the baggage that isn’t making your retirement wishes happen. If you are generating negativity – just stop and open your eyes to an outrageous retirement.
I agree, it is so hard at time to stay positive in a hostile environment like this. I totally agree with your conclusion though:
“And in truth there is no downside to being positive and friendly to people, whether they are enemies or not. If they are truly enemies, they won’t like you any less but if they are friends that you have mis characterized as enemies, being positive will keep you from pushing them to become what you fear.”
Truer words haven’t been spoken! Plus it really messes with their head when you are nice to them 😉
And believe me, Right now I am very into messing with their heads.
From the tones of your posts, I could kinda tell that might be the case 😉 lol
Maintaining a positive attitude is very difficult in today’s work-place environment. Working in retirement has proven to be a challenge for me, but it all boils down to keeping all things in proper balance.
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Actually this post was written when I was dealing with a very bad boss which ultimately led to my precipitous decision to retire. There is very little good to say about being an employee.
I agree that the work environment can become a killer on one’s attitude over time. Retirement gives you the chance to start over and look at life from a much different perspective if you are willing to take the chance.
Steve,
I also think it puts you in a situation where you control rather than being controlled. You take the responsibility and the risks and you get the benefits or the penalties. It’s fair.
Ralph@Retirement Lifestyle’s last Blog Post ..Down with Google