• Try to limit your interactions with negative co-workers if possible. When someone comes to your office to sit and gripe or complain, tell them you’re too busy to talk – which you really might be if you are behaving as though you love your job as described above.

• If you’re surrounded by negative people in the morning, take your lunch break alone rather than going to lunch with those same people. Use lunch to re-energize yourself. Listen to a motivational tape during your ride to lunch or read a positive, motivational book while you eat.

• If you can’t get yourself away from a negative co-worker, try one of these mental techniques: 1) when you hear the person start complaining, ignore it and tell yourself “Here he/she goes again. It’s too bad they can’t enjoy work like I do.” Or, 2

1) Become aware of when you feel badly about your work or the people you work with. Is it first thing in the morning as you’re entering the door? Is it after you’ve dealt with a specific person or had an extra long day? Once you become aware of what it is that triggers your negative feelings at or about work, then you can start to figure out why and try to address it. Often it’s a certain event that triggers a stream of negative thoughts which cause you to spiral downward into a ball of negative energy.

I once had a job where I had allowed negativity to overwhelm any other feelings about the work. Most of the people I worked with were nice and the work could have stayed interesting if I had given it a chance, but I reached the point where my negativity was triggered the minute I got out of my car in the parking lot in the morning. I immediately allowed a constant stream of negative thoughts about how boring the job was, how much I hated it, where I would rather be, and how long a day it was going to be to fill my head as I slowly plodded toward the door. How could I possibly enjoy my workday after that?

If I had stayed aware and caught myself the moment that the first negative thought entered my head, then I could have changed the story I told myself. I could have told myself that I was going to have a great day and decided how to make it more interesting. But since I was stuck in the idea that things were bad, I was lost in a cloud of negativity from the moment I stepped through the door.

2) Do you feel like your job is boring or that you aren’t treated well? Sometimes either of those might be true for you, but sometimes this is just a mindset that has become a habit. What if you broke the habit of feeling that way? Make a pledge to yourself to try a different mindset for 30 days and see what happens.

The new mindset is this: Everyday at work, first thing when you get in or even at the end of the prior day before you leave, ask yourself what you would do in your job during this day if you knew you were really important or if you found your job interesting. Just ask yourself what you would be doing if you were important there and loved your job. And then do it! Once you commit to acting as if you are important and love your job, you may find that it completely changes for you and you can break the cycle of negativity. (You can find more about this technique described in Susan Jeffer’s book Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway.)

3) Pay close attention to who you spend your time with at work. Who comes to sit in your office and chat for a few minutes? Who do you go to lunch with? Are the co-workers you choose to spend time with the complainers, the blamers, or the drama kings and queens? Do you find yourself helplessly or even willingly drawn into their whining, gossiping and general cloud of negativity about the workplace or a certain co-worker or boss?

If you’ve decided to try to change how you feel about your work, then you are going to have to be careful about who you spend your time with at work if possible. Negativity is more contagious than any disease you can think of! But there are some ways to improve your immunity to negative energy:

• Try to limit your interactions with negative co-workers if possible. When someone comes to your office to sit and gripe or complain, tell them you’re too busy to talk – which you really might be if you are behaving as though you love your job as described above.

• If you’re surrounded by negative people in the morning, take your lunch break alone rather than going to lunch with those same people. Use lunch to re-energize yourself. Listen to a motivational tape during your ride to lunch or read a positive, motivational book while you eat.

• If you can’t get yourself away from a negative co-worker, try one of these mental techniques: 1) when you hear the person start complaining, ignore it and tell yourself “Here he/she goes again. It’s too bad they can’t enjoy work like I do.” Or, 2)

I once had a job where I had allowed negativity to overwhelm any other feelings about the work. Most of the people I worked with were nice and the work could have stayed interesting if I had given it a chance, but I reached the point where my negativity was triggered the minute I got out of my car in the parking lot in the morning. I immediately allowed a constant stream of negative thoughts about how boring the job was, how much I hated it, where I would rather be, and how long a day it was going to be to fill my head as I slowly plodded toward the door. How could I possibly enjoy my workday after that?

If I had stayed aware and caught myself the moment that the first negative thought entered my head, then I could have changed the story I told myself. I could have told myself that I was going to have a great day and decided how to make it more interesting. But since I was stuck in the idea that things were bad, I was lost in a cloud of negativity from the moment I stepped through the door.

2) Do you feel like your job is boring or that you aren’t treated well? Sometimes either of those might be true for you, but sometimes this is just a mindset that has become a habit. What if you broke the habit of feeling that way? Make a pledge to yourself to try a different mindset for 30 days and see what happens.

The new mindset is this: Everyday at work, first thing when you get in or even at the end of the prior day before you leave, ask yourself what you would do in your job during this day if you knew you were really important or if you found your job interesting. Just ask yourself what you would be doing if you were important there and loved your job. And then do it! Once you commit to acting as if you are important and love your job, you may find that it completely changes for you and you can break the cycle of negativity. (You can find more about this technique described in Susan Jeffer’s book Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway.)

3) Pay close attention to who you spend your time with at work. Who comes to sit in your office and chat for a few minutes? Who do you go to lunch with? Are the co-workers you choose to spend time with the complainers, the blamers, or the drama kings and queens? Do you find yourself helplessly or even willingly drawn into their whining, gossiping and general cloud of negativity about the workplace or a certain co-worker or boss?

If you’ve decided to try to change how you feel about your work, then you are going to have to be careful about who you spend your time with at work if possible. Negativity is more contagious than any disease you can think of! But there are some ways to improve your immunity to negative energy:

• Try to limit your interactions with negative co-workers if possible. When someone comes to your office to sit and gripe or complain, tell them you’re too busy to talk – which you really might be if you are behaving as though you love your job as described above.

• If you’re surrounded by negative people in the morning, take your lunch break alone rather than going to lunch with those same people. Use lunch to re-energize yourself. Listen to a motivational tape during your ride to lunch or read a positive, motivational book while you eat.

• If you can’t get yourself away from a negative co-worker, try one of these mental techniques: 1) when you hear the person start complaining, ignore it and tell yourself “Here he/she goes again. It’s too bad they can’t enjoy work like I do.” Or, 2

2) Do you feel like your job is boring or that you aren’t treated well? Sometimes either of those might be true for you, but sometimes this is just a mindset that has become a habit. What if you broke the habit of feeling that way? Make a pledge to yourself to try a different mindset for 30 days and see what happens.

The new mindset is this: Everyday at work, first thing when you get in or even at the end of the prior day before you leave, ask yourself what you would do in your job during this day if you knew you were really important or if you found your job interesting. Just ask yourself what you would be doing if you were important there and loved your job. And then do it! Once you commit to acting as if you are important and love your job, you may find that it completely changes for you and you can break the cycle of negativity. (You can find more about this technique described in Susan Jeffer’s book Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway.)

3) Pay close attention to who you spend your time with at work. Who comes to sit in your office and chat for a few minutes? Who do you go to lunch with? Are the co-workers you choose to spend time with the complainers, the blamers, or the drama kings and queens? Do you find yourself helplessly or even willingly drawn into their whining, gossiping and general cloud of negativity about the workplace or a certain co-worker or boss?

If you’ve decided to try to change how you feel about your work, then you are going to have to be careful about who you spend your time with at work if possible. Negativity is more contagious than any disease you can think of! But there are some ways to improve your immunity to negative energy:

• Try to limit your interactions with negative co-workers if possible. When someone comes to your office to sit and gripe or complain, tell them you’re too busy to talk – which you really might be if you are behaving as though you love your job as described above.

• If you’re surrounded by negative people in the morning, take your lunch break alone rather than going to lunch with those same people. Use lunch to re-energize yourself. Listen to a motivational tape during your ride to lunch or read a positive, motivational book while you eat.

• If you can’t get yourself away from a negative co-worker, try one of these mental techniques: 1) when you hear the person start complaining, ignore it and tell yourself “Here he/she goes again. It’s too bad they can’t enjoy work like I do.” Or, 2

3) Pay close attention to who you spend your time with at work. Who comes to sit in your office and chat for a few minutes? Who do you go to lunch with? Are the co-workers you choose to spend time with the complainers, the blamers, or the drama kings and queens? Do you find yourself helplessly or even willingly drawn into their whining, gossiping and general cloud of negativity about the workplace or a certain co-worker or boss?

If you’ve decided to try to change how you feel about your work, then you are going to have to be careful about who you spend your time with at work if possible. Negativity is more contagious than any disease you can think of! But there are some ways to improve your immunity to negative energy:

• Try to limit your interactions with negative co-workers if possible. When someone comes to your office to sit and gripe or complain, tell them you’re too busy to talk – which you really might be if you are behaving as though you love your job as described above.

• If you’re surrounded by negative people in the morning, take your lunch break alone rather than going to lunch with those same people. Use lunch to re-energize yourself. Listen to a motivational tape during your ride to lunch or read a positive, motivational book while you eat.

• If you can’t get yourself away from a negative co-worker, try one of these mental techniques: 1) when you hear the person start complaining, ignore it and tell yourself “Here he/she goes again. It’s too bad they can’t enjoy work like I do.” Or, 2

• Try to limit your interactions with negative co-workers if possible. When someone comes to your office to sit and gripe or complain, tell them you’re too busy to talk – which you really might be if you are behaving as though you love your job as described above.

• If you’re surrounded by negative people in the morning, take your lunch break alone rather than going to lunch with those same people. Use lunch to re-energize yourself. Listen to a motivational tape during your ride to lunch or read a positive, motivational book while you eat.

• If you can’t get yourself away from a negative co-worker, try one of these mental techniques: 1) when you hear the person start complaining, ignore it and tell yourself “Here he/she goes again. It’s too bad they can’t enjoy work like I do.” Or, 2) try the technique of transparency in which you imagine the other person’s complaints passing right through you – if the other person’s complaints don’t get stuck somewhere in you, then there’s nothing to trigger your own negative thoughts.

4) Find someone at your workplace with a positive attitude and try to cultivate a friendship with them. Identify someone who enjoys their work and seems friendly, and then stop to talk with them. Is there someone who is doing well in your company and seems to have this positive outlook? Ask if you can buy them lunch and then ask them what they like about the job or if they can give you any tips for doing better at the company. You may be surprised at how much people who are positive like to share information and inspiration.

Does this idea sound frightening to you? Think about it this way – the worst thing the person would say to you is “No.” And if that happens, then you can know that that person was not the right one for you to talk to and move on to finding someone else to help you in your search for positive energy at work. If there’s no one that you feel is positive in your company, look for other resources such as friends, family or just someone you’ve met who seems positive about their life and ask them how they stay feeling that way.

5) Stop allowing yourself to take offense at things that happen at work, forgive co-workers if they make a mistake, and be kind to the other people you work with. If these are not things you do naturally, you may be surprised how your work environment changes for you if you start to behave this way.

Everyday there are plenty of things we can take offense at – the supply is endless if you are looking for it. I once had a co-worker who I considered a friend take offense when she thought I had said something making fun of her husband. I hadn’t even been talking about her husband, but she apparently had some touchy feelings about him and maybe some feelings of inferiority. She lashed out at me verbally, and then I took offense too and defended myself. Although I soon apologized (for something I didn’t even think I had done), our working relationship was never comfortable again and our friendship was dead. Both of us had taken offense and neither completely forgave. I have since learned not to take other people’s upset personally. It rarely has anything to do with me, but has everything to do with what is going on for them.

Many of us identify ourselves with the drama that can come from being offended. But that drama does not help us feel positive toward any situation. It just gives us more reasons to blame others and allow ourselves to feel like a victim. When you stop taking offense and forgive co-workers’ or even clients’ little transgressions as fast as possible, the environment at work can improve immediately.

I also mentioned kindness. Kindness is especially important if you supervise others. Treat them the way you would want to be treated and you will find that you have a more positive and productive workplace.

It may be that you try some or all of these techniques, and you still feel completely negative about your job or your workplace. Maybe you have an abusive boss or there is no positive energy in the company and almost everyone is down. Then you need to evaluate whether you would be better off looking for a new job.

However, be aware that if the negativity is coming from you, then it won’t be long before it surfaces in your new environment. After the newness of