Are you surrounded by people with negative attitudes?  Are slipping into one yourself because you aren’t happy with your current work  situation?  It would be hard for most of us to go through life without at one point, succumbing to our emotions and wearing negativity on our sleeves for a while.  This blog is for you if you answered yes to either question or are trying to manage people around you who are chronic negaholics in the workplace.

Negativity in the workplace is a deadly toxin that can kill positive work environments in a hurry.  Carrying negativity around for too long is neither fair to the person who carries the feeling nor the company and its employees who have to put up with it.

If you are unhappy in your current job the thought of telling your boss to “take this job and shove it” may cross your mind on a regular basis.

The best definition of the word attitude I ever heard is that an attitude is simply a though seeping out of us!

To turn around your attitude I need to you replace the thought of “take this job and shove it” with “take this job and shLove it.” Don’t direct your thought at your boss. Direct this new thought at yourself.

Lets face it. Negativity isn’t fair to anyone involved.  It is not fair to your boss and teammates who have to put up with your whining and snivelling all day long.  It certainly isn’t fair to you.  Why would you choose to spend any more time in the pit of negativity than is  absolutely necessary?  Negaholics pay a huge personal price. They miss out on life. Negativity regularly blinds us to opportunity in our life.

It is time to fight back. Fighting back requires taking personal responsibility.  The truth is that when we are negative we have chosen  to be negative. No one forces us to be negative.

Directing your thoughts to  “take this job and shLove it” is simply making a different choice.  Only you can do it and I know you CAN do it.

Take this job and shLove it thoughts are geared towards appreciating your current job no matter what the environment is.  It means you

1)      Say thank you to your current boss.

2)      Say thank you to your current coworkers.

Hindsight is 20/20 and my hindsight has taught me that every job I’ve had in my life has taught me something about who I am and who I am not.  Every work environment has taught me what motivates me and what doesn’t.

I am thankful for both the jobs I loved AND the jobs I didn’t like because of what each taught me. Choices made from the learnings from both have gradually led me to  a place where I simply do what I love and LOVE what I do.

That is the key.  You need to answer a couple questions:

1)      What has each job you’ve had taught you about who you are and what you like?

2)      Are you willing to use that knowledge to set a plan for your life.  Will you use your learning to continually choose to place yourself in environments that suit you and that you will thrive in?

Great things await you if you can.  The great news is it means you can immediately adopt a new attitude in your current environment.  As you now see it as valuable for what you are learning you can more easily adapt two new attitudes:

New Attitude 1: I will give my best to my current job. The more I apply myself the more I will learn.  If I move on to a different job that effort is never lost.  The skills and learnings you get are something that no one can take from you and will make you more valuable in your next role.

New Attitude 2: I will treat my coworkers with respect. They don’t deserve my negativity. They didn’t force me to here. I chose to be here.  I will stop blaming everyone else for my circumstance and start accepting personal responsibility for my now and my future.

If you are currently negative about your situation, every ounce of you will react to this blog  by screaming thoughts of “That’s not fair. I’ve been robbed. I’ve been cheated. I’ve been lied to!  They OWE me.”  Even if that is true,  I’m going to tell you to tell those thoughts to get lost.  The truth is that your current situation offers you  something to learn that will be invaluable to your future success and happiness.  Those are things that you deserve.

There are a couple possible outcomes of the new found attitude:

Discovery 1:  You many discover that you are in a job you could actually like but you just couldn’t see it before.  As you continue to “Get what you Give” at work your thought pattern will lead a new attitude and you’ll start getting the respect and praise you are desperately seeking.   Your co-workers faces will begin to transform even though they won’t actually change. You won’t see them as enemies. You’ll start to see them as allies.

Discovery 2: You may discover that you had made a bad choice to be in environment  that only tests your weaknesses and doesn’t use your strengths.  The good news is that bad choices are the 2^nd best type of choice you can make, if you learn from them.  By accepting responsibility for your choice you can adapt a better attitude towards your boss and coworkers and you may find that with a new attitude they will become allies in helping you find and move into an environment you can thrive in. You may choose to leave your current job  but you won’t burn any bridges.  Burning bridges doesn’t benefit anyone.

So there you have it.  I don’t care what situation you are in, you should have a reason to love it.  Replace that negative thought with a more positive one.  Take this job and shLove it!  You don’t have to do it for others. It is a gift you can give yourself.  Nothing can stop you. It comes down to the question: Will you choose to do so?