Years ago, when in corporate life and corporate payroll (yes, I was, before funding The Chalfont Project [1]), we, non -Americans, used to make fun of our American colleagues extraordinary positive presence. I personally was used to the greetings in England, ‘How are you? Not too bad’ (Not too bad!, wow) compared with the American, ‘How are you? Fantastic!, said in a way as if there were 10 vocal ‘a’ in the word.
They were never quite credible, because that came up no matter what, even if we just knew that their plane had been 5 hour delayed, and there was no taxi waiting for them, and it was heavy rain in Heathrow, and there were 2 hours stuck in the Mother of all Car Parks, the UK orbital, M25 motorway. Yes, ‘Fantastic!’. How did they do that?
But stereotypes aside – and American colleagues are always a good source of it, this side of the water – there was a positive outlook that, all things equal, other people tended to appreciate.
Positive thinking is contagious. Negative is as well. The question is which one you prefer to contaminate the airtime.
There are people who can’t help listing the negative: the kids were late to school, the traffic was awful, the laptop crashed, the slides were lost, I had a bad night, I have jet lag, I bended my knee badly, skiing over the week end, otherwise I am fine.
But this is OK if a one off. I think. But as a 365 times account of life, frankly, it gets pretty trying. Walking Emergencies in the Payroll are a drain.
If I have to choose my toxicity, I prefer the positive one. It will at least breed positive thinking and positive expressions. I don’t care if 50% or so is artificial. Give me an artificial positive, I’ll take it.
Genuine positive, even better. In that environment, the sky is the limit.