Being productive is a challenge for most of us in business today. Persevering and achieving your business dreams in the midst of a negative world is increasingly difficult. The uncontrollable negatives from riots to earthquakes to a tenuous economy assault us daily.
How do you focus your attention and achieve your business dreams in this doom-and-gloom environment?
Think of your attention as a finite resource like time. Become selective about to whom and what you give your attention.
Follow these 3 Keys to Increase Your Productivity today:
Give Attention to Positive Thoughts
When you receive negative news, acknowledge your emotional reaction. Disappointment, anger, frustration, and other emotions must be processed to avoid blocking your emotional intelligence development.
However, do so quickly. Give yourself a little time to experience those emotions. Then flush them. Yes, multiple flushes are required sometimes. Sure, some emotions circle the bowl more than once.
Flush. Move on. Now.
As you flush quickly, you create room in your mind for what you can do to redirect the negative news. You focus on what you can control and influence, refusing to rent space in your head to what is beyond your reach.
Give attention to positive thoughts that are actionable.
Give Attention to Positive People
When you receive negative news, there typically is a messenger. If it’s technology-driven, cut it off. If it’s human, thank them and excuse yourself.
There are negative persons who enjoy delivering bad news. If there’s too much good news, they create negativity.
I call them Eeyore Vampires.
Their mantra is “It’ll never work.” They suck positive attention from you even when away from work trying to love what you do with those you love.
Treat Eeyore Vampires like they have a contagious disease and you’ll catch it.
Give your attention to positive people. Those persons who bring out the best in you, who have your best interests at heart, and who ask questions like, “How may I best serve you?”
Give Attention to Positive Outcomes
Each of us experiences outcomes that fall short of our expectations regardless of how hard we work or how much we prepare. When your negative news is of this kind, remind yourself of a previous experience when you exceeded your expectations and succeeded.
Celebrate that experience once more. Give attention to sustaining that celebrative attitude. Tell yourself, “If I did it once, I’ll do it again.”
Most likely, that positive experience was the accumulation of previous learning experiences of “bad news” like the current one. Reliving that success guides you to the next.
Give attention to positive thoughts, people, and outcomes, increase your productivity, and achieve your business dreams today.