NEGATIVITY

Can I dump garbage in your yard?

Of course not.

That would be insane.

Yet every day, people dump garbage into our minds:

“This job sucks. We don’t get enough training!”
“They shrunk my territory!”
“These leads are terrible.”
“Bob missed his numbers again. He’s not going to last, right?”

The problem?

Listen to negativity long enough, and you become negative too.

Exposure to prolonged negativity peels away neurons in the brain’s hippocampus—the part of the brain you need to think critically.

In other words, too much negativity makes you dumb.

The way out?

The next time someone dumps garbage into your brain, don’t add fuel to the fire. Extinguish the flame instead. Like this:

“This job sucks. We don’t get enough training.”
“Mmm.”

“They shrunk my territory!”
“They did.”

“Our quota keeps going up.”
“It does.”

“I’m not getting any leads from marketing.” “So what are you going to do about it?”

“There’s so much f**king traffic!”
“There is.”

“Bob missed his numbers. He’s not going to last, right?”
“I’m not sure.”

“You’re so slow.”
“I am.”

“I hate it here. I regret going into sales.” “Okay.” “What do you think you’ll do?”

“These leads are terrible.”
(Silence).
Silence speaks louder than words.
Leave people wondering why you're conserving energy rather than spending energy piling on more negative.

The golden rule? 

If you hang out with someone and feel the positive energy getting zapped out of your body, it's a signal to spend less time with them.