Research has shown that being able to bring hope and positivity into people’s lives is essential for leading or influencing others. However, for many of us that doesn’t come easily.
Some personality types such as people strong on Sensing or Judging according to the popular Myers-Briggs Type Indicator can be prone to anxiety and negativity. Sensates focus on facts, past experience and the details of a situation to make decisions. They can become anxious and stressed if there are insufficient facts and details and have no previous experience of the situation.
Judging types are goal centred and like structure, order and desire closure. They can become stressed and anxious if they are faced with situations that are disorganised and lack the opportunity to plan a way forward.
Both types can easily become negative if their basic needs are unmet.
Of course, it’s not only Sensates and Judging personality types who can become negative and anxious. Negativity and anxiety are usually driven by fear, especially the fear of being unable to cope in a particular situation. In this article I outline five steps you can take to move beyond fear driven negativity and become more positive and hopeful.
1. Love Drives out Fear
An ancient wisdom text found in the bible states, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear for fear has to do with punishment…” (1John 4:18). Fear causes us to focus on ourselves, to feel that in some way we will be ‘punished’ (either by failing to meet our own expectations of ourselves or others’ expectations of us) if we don’t succeed. While we all will struggle to be able to love others perfectly nevertheless if we intentionally discipline ourselves to switch the focus from ourselves and instead empathise with those who would likely be affected by the situation our fear levels will decrease and we will find ourselves becoming more hopeful and more positive.
2. Reflect on Previous Achievements
What are some previous situations when you have felt fearful and doubted you would be able to cope but eventually succeeded? What worked for you then and how could that experience help you be more positive now?
3. Who Could Help?
Being successful usually doesn’t always depend only on you. Who else in your team, family, colleagues, friends, mentors, etc. could offer help, support or relevant advice? The very act of including others relieves you from some of the stress as well as opening the way for creative possibilities from other people.
4. Prepare
One of the best way to reduce negativity is to become aware of the strengths and weaknesses of your personality type. Then as far as you are able, prepare by having as many resources as you can to address the areas of your weaknesses which are likely to cause you to be negative. For example, for the Sensate gathering as much data as possible would help to reduce anxiety. However, having the time to gather such resources may not always be available.
5. Gain an Alternate Perspective
When faced with a situation that triggers feelings of negativity pause, take some deep breaths and ask yourself whether there’s another way of looking at the situation. Sometimes taking an alternate perspective can enable a person to identify a more positive approach to solving the problem. Of course that’s also a benefit from seeking the perspectives from other people whom you trust.
Conclusion
Hope empowers and generates creative alternatives to negative situations. At the beginning of each day being thankful for the blessings and benefits in our lives can prepare us for facing the day with a grateful and positive spirit. This doesn’t mean dismissing the difficulties and problems we regularly experience. It does mean choosing to focus on what we have rather than what we haven’t.
And finally, in those contexts where there can be no constructive outcome help your team focus on what they can do to make the situation as positive as possible with a sense of self- respect and pride in what they have previously achieved.
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