Negativity....almost as contagious as a cold.

So, here I am this week feeling terribly negative. I despise Halloween. I despise surprises involving monetary issues. This week, as you can guess, involved those two things.

Why must we deem it necessary to vent our negativities and frustrations? It may make us feel better for a short while, but really....what good comes of it? It makes others crabby with you when perhaps they weren't crabby to begin with.  

So, while on my rant of frustrations this week, a friend expressed HER frustration regarding someone who was being negative about a certain task we had to do. She said how it feels like they aren't part of the team and she wished they would just suck it up because no one was happy.  I know what you are thinking, "Are you sure she wasn't talking about you?". She swears she was not.   But she got me thinking. I don't want people to perceive me as this. I love being part of a team.  I love the people I am on said team with. I love helping others. So....I sucked it up. Today went swimmingly better. I smiled. I laughed. I enjoyed my day. I was a team player.   It felt so good. 
Other despise note....when a financial bomb gets dropped on you, one must truly think. First instinct is to get upset.  Second, one ponders the other point of view. Third, a decision of some sort must be made.  I think these kinds of things completely tick us off because things aren't going the way WE want them too.  Then, its easy to get other people upset along with you. Almost to the extent of "rally the torches and pitchforks" upset.   Again, what good comes of it? Now instead of just you fuming, you have someone else upset too.  Great. You have now single handedly created world war 77. Okay, so that's a bit dramatic, but you get my drift.  In the end, is it worth it? Probably not.  In the end, it doesn't matter.  Again, I sucked it up. Still smoldering slightly, but in the end, when I reflect, the good outweighs the bad and that is all that matters.

So in closing, a quote that I think of often and quote to my students frequently.  "Attitudes are contagious. Is yours worth catching?". Some days/weeks mine may be closed for repairs so to speak, but I sure as heck hope it is most other days.