When the wheels were falling off our economy and our businesses were threatened we had to do whatever we could to keep going.
In my case for pure self preservation I needed to keep myself in a positive frame of mind, despite cancelled contracts, bad debts and other kicks in the backside that seemed to form a disorderly queue for a few scary years.
“There are unique opportunities in a recession” I read in a great book called ‘Storming the Recession‘. The main point made in this book was that recession is an unusual time and if you keep your eyes open during it you will find opportunities that would not arise at normal times.
I totally bought into this positive logic and celebrated and championed positivity wherever I saw it – some good news, a business opening, someone expanding, someone doing up their premises would end up in a tweet or a post by me with my often used hash tag, #Positivity.
I know many will roll their eyes when they see those #Positivity tweets, sometimes even including my own crew!
I was reading a great book that is part of a Smarter Egg programme I am doing with Aodan Enright called ‘To Sell is Human‘ by Daniel Pink.
I was relieved to see him talking about this ‘positivity‘ state , which he explains is somewhat necessary to help keep you buoyant (great word!) when you are in business.
He says that this positive mindset once applied in a balanced way can really work. In extensive research done by guys called Seligman and Schulman (I’m guessing they are not Irish!) they found that those who were more positively aligned sold more, were more determined and were less likely to give up on a task or quit their jobs.
Apparently there is a ‘sweet spot‘ ratio (referred to as the Losando ratio) of 3:1 between positive and negative emotions where you reap the most success. Higher than that you are getting into delusional territory and lower than that you are just less effective.
“Optimism, it turns out, isn’t a hollow sentiment. It’s a catalyst that can stir persistence, steady us during challenges, and stoke the confidence that we can influence our surroundings” quotes Mr Pink.
It turns out poor Greg isn’t that crazy after all ..
#PositivityWorks
Greg Canty Fuzion Blog 