Have you ever noticed that at times, anger is more motivating than joy? The other day a friend had a bad experience with a retailer and wanted to give a bad review. I overheard him struggling to find the correct screen to place his review. I could tell it was becoming quite cumbersome to submit his bad review. But, he persisted and persisted because he said that he wasn’t going to let them get away with it. I have never seen him withstand this level of inconvenience to leave a positive review.
It got us thinking. Why is anger and expressing displeasure sometimes more attractive and motivating than sharing joy and appreciation? We have a number of answers, and if you’ve worked with us, you will know our approach to this, however that is not the topic of this newsletter.
Instead, we want to leave you with that curious thought. Can you identify a time or two when you jumped over hurdles to tell someone, or an organization, or the world, your displeasure? Can you think of some examples when you went out of your way to say “thank you”, either verbally or in writing? I’m sure many of you have examples of both. Perhaps, it’s a matter of degree. Really, really unpleasant things get our attention and really, really good things get our attention. Most of our life is spent in the middle of those extremes. What would life be like if we appreciated all the little positive things that occur around us daily and looked to improve and give constructive feedback about the negative ones?
Like we said, this letter is not about leaving you with a conclusive thought, but rather encouraging you to think about how this shows up in your life.
To gratitude over complaints (or at least in balance)
