Believing in negative thoughts is the single greatest obstruction to success. – Charles F. Glassman
Imagine someone approached you today with two choices: live your life vibrantly with positive energy and a chance towards unprecedented success, or live a lackluster life with constant struggle at every turn.
Of course, this wouldn’t be a hard choice to make at all. All of us would definitely choose positive energy with a great probability of success. Yet, we make these decisions every day without knowing it, and most of us choose wrong.
By refusing to stay away from negative people, we choose the option of a lackluster life with constant struggle.
This is because, in life, the people we surround ourselves with go a long way in shaping who we become as a person and the kind of lives we live.
If only we knew just how dangerous it is to surround ourselves with negative people, many of us would think harder when considering the kind of people we move and associate with every day.
The Dangers of Negativity
Ideally, we ought to think of our relationships with people as life-giving us a choice between negativity and positivity, between a high probability towards success or a guarantee towards lethargy and failure.
Why is this so? Well, we take a look at some of the most vicious dangers one may face if they don’t stay away from negative people.
○ Stunted Growth/Development
For growth to occur in life, there are a certain number of factors that must be present. Of course, among these factors, we have a positive mindset, a willing mind, working smartly, and so on.
One of the most underrated factors, though, is surrounding ourselves with positive people.
Positive people give us the encouragement and nurturing we need to move on. Negative people discourage and stunt growth.
○ Life Energy Drain
Life is such a complex mill of activities. We go from one place to another, engaging in one activity to another to build a better life for ourselves and our family. This gets incredibly tiring.
In cases like this we need all the last drop of energy we can get. Yet when we decide to surround ourselves with negative people, we are actively making sure that we drain ourselves of all the little power we have.
On the other hand, when we do the same with positive people, we draw on their strengths and encouragement to fashion out even more energy to add to the ones we already have.
○ Affects Mental and Physical health
Surrounding yourself with negative people can cause a deterioration of physical health, along with a breakdown of our mental well-being.
Keeping up with negative people tests our resolve, so much so that many people break down in the end. The breakdown is so severe that it causes mental and physical sickness.
Identifying Negative People in our Life
To make the life-changing decision to stay away from negative people from our lives, we must, first of all, identify who they are. Below are some quick indicators and characteristics of negative people to always be on the lookout for.
○ Never Have a Word of Encouragement
Negative People always have negative feedback. This is one of the most obvious signs. No matter how great you performed or how beautiful an event was, negative people always focus on the underwhelming parts of the narrative while ignoring the vital areas.
○ Depressing Attitude
If you have anyone around you who tends to suck the life out of any event or activity, you are dealing with a negative person. They tend to never take responsibility for their own lives but infringe on others and make sure to remove any vestige of enthusiasm that may have been there before their arrival.
○ Pessimism
Negative people always take a negative perspective on everything. The reasons behind their pessimism are numerous, but ultimately they have come to believe there is no bright side to anything.
As such, they make sure people around them know this too.
○ Tendency for Constant Complaining
Lastly, another crucial tell-tale sign of a negative person is the tendency to nag and complain constantly, while a positive person sees opportunities in every situation. They always feel the word has done them a great wrong, and they always try to make this known through their constant complaints.
Staying Away From Negative People Can Change Your Life
We have all probably made the mistake of associating ourselves with a negative person in the past. While this is not a significant problem, the problem begins when we fail to move on from them.
It can be challenging to stay away from negative people. That is why we have provided a detailed guide below to help you do so smoothly and effectively.
○ Refocus Your Thoughts
Both poverty and riches are the offspring of thought. ― Napoleon Hill
Most of the challenges we face in life all start in our brains. The same goes to stay away from negative people.
Refocusing our thoughts away from negative influence towards a more positive outlook gives us all the mental strength we need to move on and find our path in life.
As we can learn from the universal law of Attraction, negative thoughts attract negative people. Positive thoughts attract positive people. Once we refocus our thoughts, we start to set the foundation for building a more positive life.
○ Use Social Media Wisely
Social media can be a haven for growth and success. When used wisely, it can open up new opportunities that we would have never been able to access otherwise.
Yet, with its extraordinary capacity for good also comes a high tendency for negativity. On the internet are people with fake lifestyles who portray all the characteristics of negativity that we highlighted earlier.
This is why one of the key steps to staying away from toxic people is detoxing your social media. You don’t have to quit entirely, but make sure to stop following people who will constantly make you feel bad about yourself.
○ Stop Comparing Yourself with Others
Many people compare due to their insecurities or an urge always to one-up others. This is a breeding ground for negative people to latch upon.
Self-confident people never compare themselves with others. Neither do people with an abundance mindset. These two traits are an absolute menace to negativity. That is why we don’t often see them near negative people.
Everyone is sometimes guilty of comparisons, but when it happens, it is imperative always to stop it as fast as possible because once we let it grow, it starts to fester, and negative people begin to pounce into our lives immediately.
○ Success Begins in the Mind
The greatest battles are fought in the mind. Having the right mindset is also vital to stay away from negative people.
Negative People will always have a fixed mindset. Positive people, on the other hand, will always gravitate towards a growth mindset.
It is up to us to reconstruct our minds to accommodate positivity instead of negativity. Once we do this, we will naturally stay away from negative people while attracting more positive friends and acquaintances.
○ Change the Topic of Conversation
Lastly, it is important to know how to deal with negative people when we somehow find ourselves in a room with them. The best tactic to always employ in this case is evasion and exit.
First, always ensure to never go too deep into their conversations. They have a way of sucking people into disgusting topics such as gossip, worthless news, and insulting opinions about other people.
Once they do this, it is up to us to evade, change the topic of conversation to something a bit milder, and find a way to leave the scene as fast as possible.
Sometimes it is hard to leave immediately, perhaps in an official or family setting. In this case, evade as much as possible, and find a way to relate with other people until it is time to leave.
Conclusion
Negative people are dangerous and can act as a stumbling block to all of our future success. Luckily, they are not immovable and are pretty easy to identify.
They constantly nag and complain, never see the good in anything and always give negative feedback. If these traits sound familiar to you about somebody, then you should do all you can to stay away immediately.
Staying away is a little bit harder than identification, but it is not impossible. In fact, once we lay the proper foundation in our minds, like refocusing our thoughts and developing the right mindset, the whole thing can be effortless, and we find ourselves naturally staying away from negative people while attracting positive ones.
It is also essential that we never let our guards down whenever we find ourselves in a room with negative people.
In the end, there is infinitely more to gain from staying away from negative people than there is to lose. All we have to do is commit ourselves to the steps above, and we’ll be well on our way towards achieving our goals.
