Dealing With the Ups and Downs at Work as a Habitual Optimist

For quite a while now, I’ve maintained a positive outlook. Looking back, it’s likely that I was too positive at times because I’ve had a long standing habit of doing practically anything to avoid negative situations. And when such moments did occur, I would try to quickly forget about them.

As one can expect, the more I tried to block them out of my mind, the longer they would linger. Thankfully, I’ve learned over time that it’s definitely best to take the time to think about, and reflect on, those not-so-great moments.

For instance, about a month ago, a couple of incidents at work gave me much grief. In the past, I would have likely kept all the stuff bottled up inside me and tried to forget about them as quickly as possible.

This time around, I chose to do things differently. I took a few moments to:

• think about what happened and replayed the experiences in my mind several times.
• think about what I would have done differently.
• think about what I could do as a follow up after the occurrences.

After this brief period of reflection, I decided to speak with my supervisor about both of the incidents. I also spoke to a couple of trusted colleagues. Doing all this provided benefits, as they allowed me to:

• get the negative energy out of my system.
• receive support.
• feel much better sooner than later.
• hear different perspectives and learn from them.

I’ve only recently come to a new realization about my job. Though I love the work that I do, there are the inevitable ups and downs associated with my job. Before, I seldom mentioned any of the “downs” that I experienced at work. Now I can, especially since I know how to handle them much more effectively.