A negative mental attitude involves expecting the worse to happen in your life all the times and thinking that no matter what, good just won’t come your way. Starting your home-based bakery or any small business forces you to choose how you are going to think about your goals and business journey. Do you believe you can start a home-based bakery or are friends and family telling you “this won’t work? You won’t make enough money, you are charging too much money, you are charging too little or your cakes are good but not that good.” Are you saying all of this to yourself?
Did you know one negative comment takes a tremendous toll on your self esteem? It’s true.
Remember there is nothing great about being a critical person or having to listen and/or live with a critic. In a perfect world we would all surround ourselves with “positive-quality people.” I said in a perfect world and by now you know we don’t live in a perfect world.
My father, God bless his soul was one of the most critical folks on the planet; and he was most critical of the people around him and I learned early on that I needed to shield myself from that negativity. I was a teenager when I did the unthinkable, stopped taking his comments seriously and started surrounding myself with positive words of wisdom in an effort to build a strong “positive” mental attitude.
What can we do with all those negative forces, comments and thoughts?
- Befriend Criticism- Some times there is a shade of truth in critical statements. Listen, access if it applies, change it, store it or flush it!
- Criticize strategically- Positive criticism is an oxymoron, in my opinion, since criticism is the activity of judgment and in many cases can be synonymous with “analysis” a personal analysis. Remember there are about six billion people on the planet so always take this with a grain of salt.
- Protect Your Self-Esteem (Don’t let someone else beat you up emotionally and don’t beat yourself up)
- Choose the right words (Name calling is out of the question. You are not dumb, stupid or ignorant and don’t even think of saying that to yourself, or allowing someone else to say that to you)
- Criticize your criticisms (So you messed up? So, fix it, don’t do it again or flush it!)
- Tell folks how you feel about what they say (It may not make a difference but it is better than having that conversation in your head)
- Never give up (You can re-work any idea, recipe, thought or belief, but don’t through in the towel unless your are washing and adding a bit of dye to bring about a new color…same towel new color) Got it?
