Monday, November 03, 2008

negatively geared

I raise my hand in admission that I tend toward optimism. I'd much prefer to expect a happy outcome than a negative one. If someone approaches me with an idea, I'll listen to it happily - and may well take it on enthusiastically. And while years of doing things in a specific way have made me feel that I've got the right approach, if someone offers up an alternative, I'll give it a shot. Surely being of an optimistic, open-minded disposition rides on one's face better than negativity and suspicion.

Which is why I find it so hard to deal with people who are so dissimilar to me in this way. It was only recently that I read that we imbue other people with qualities we have ourselves and it's so true. For example, I can't tell a lie - not even a fib to save myself. So when it appears that someone's lying, I'm incredulous, and deeply hurt, that they'd do such a thing. And people who are eternally negative, constantly seeing and expecting the worst are almost an alien species to me. Sure, something bad might happen, so let's see what we can do to fix it. I don't believe in not trying something in case I fail - I'll try it in case I succeed. 

I'll go into anything with a smile on my face, and if I don't succeed, chances are I'll come out laughing, plotting an alternative approach that may well succeed - if not next time, then surely the time after...

1 comment:

  1. I too am a fairly optimistic person but with one foot planted in the realist camp. I trust my gut a lot and usually it never fails me about most situations. However, there are times when I just second guess myself sooo much that I end up screwing up what could have been a very positive outcome. I need to get past doing that, for certain. I also believe in usually doing things myself, it has almost never worked for me to delegate responsibility. Not because I am an anal perfectionist, which in ways I am, but rather because more often than not when I delegate, things don't get done. However, that usually leads me, more often than not, to putting too much on my platter and getting overwhelmed.

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