Have you ever noticed that there are some people who make you feel more energized simply by being around them? People who lift you up and recharge you just by being in their presence. Have you also noticed that their are people in your life that just drain you of energy whenever you spend time with them? People who leave you feeling exhausted whenever you have an encounter with them. In living a life of Up or Getting Up (But Never Down), it is highly beneficial to clearly know who is who when it comes to your energy.
People who bring you energy are always a joy to be around. They have a spirit about them that lifts you up. These are the people you tend to seek out when something is bringing you down because they always make you feel better. Interestingly, these are also the people you seek out when you have great news to share because they always share in your joy and multiply the excitement and energy. To the extent that we can, these are the people with which we want to develop close friendships.
People who drain you of energy are challenging to be around. They have a way of stealing your emotional energy, and as your emotional energy goes, so goes your physical energy. People who drain you of energy tend to fall in to a couple of different categories:
Category 1: Negative people. These are the people that can spin any kind of good and positive news or information in to something bad or negative. Life is always stacked against them. They could win the lottery on a ticket that was given to them and they would complain about the taxes. For those of us who are trying to live a life of being Up or Getting Up, the negativity is highly draining to our own energy.
Category 2: Down people. These are the people that are always down. The ones that can’t ever see the bright side of things. The light at the end of their tunnel is always an oncoming train. Closely related to Negative people, the difference is in the attitude. Negative people have an outwardly bad attitude. Down people have an inwardly bad attitude. Down people can never seem to get out of the doldrums no matter what their circumstances are. The worst part of down people is that they have a way of pulling you down in the muck and mire with them, if you are not on your guard.
Regardless of which category energy-draining people fall into, you need to find a way to minimize their impact. Here are some coping techniques to help ensure that you remain either Up or Getting Up (But Never Down!)
- Minimize contact - Keep a list of the things that you need to talk with them about and have it ready for when you do cross paths. This way, you have an agenda of topics to drive the conversation and steer it away from negativity.
- Keep it business - People tend to go the most negative when the conversation gets to a personal level. By keeping the conversation around business, you reduce the opportunity for the conversation to bring you down.
- Eliminate them - If they only provide a negative influence in your life and there are no valid reasons or requirements to maintain a relationship, if it is possible, then eliminate them from your life.
- Monitor your own response - While there are people that can drain our energy, we can also find ourselves giving our energy away to these same people. We need to monitor our own response to these individuals so we don’t find ourselves draining our own energy worrying about an upcoming meeting with a negative person or lamenting to another person about your latest encounter.
- Refocus your energy - Once you have had an encounter with a negative person, refocus your energy on something positive so that you don’t dwell on their impact. In short, don’t give negative people more of your mental energy than they deserve. Every minute spent in negative thought is 60 seconds of lost productivity, joy, and happiness in your own life.
- Seek out time with Up people - When we raise our level of consciousness around those people who raise our energy levels, we can purposefully seek them out to maintain our own attitudes (just be sure that you are not draining their energies by engaging in negative conversation!)
Wrapping it all UP:
- Identify those people in your life that give you energy. Seek them out. Spend time with them. Positive energy breeds more positive energy.
- Identify those people in your life that drain your energy. Minimize their impact by controlling time with them and managing the conversation. Negative energy has a way of breeding negative energy so be on guard!
- Manage your response - Don’t allow negative people to steal your energy, time, and productivity. You ALWAYS have control over your response to any person or any situation.
Here’s to hoping you have an Up week! Please leave your comments in the section below. Be sure and follow us on Facebook (click here). For more information about leading a life of being Up or Getting Up (But Never Down) or for information about bringing James in to speak at your next event, please visit our website at www.uporgettingup.com