I’ve just come in from shoveling snow. Oh, think spring is my new favorite mantra. We have the steepest driveway in the neighborhood, which might be why the house was on the market for over 18 months.

As I was out there fighting with the compacted icy mush, I thought to myself “This sucks.”

Immediately after that thought came out another one followed it.

“I’m making progress.”

Looking up and down the driveway, realizing I was close to finished I shifted my perspective. In that very moment. In a pure instant I went from feeling irritated, tired and angry to accomplished, proud and relieved.

How easy it is to shift our outlook! In a second’s time my frown literally turned itself upside-down.

What about your nursing views?

When have you looked at something in the workplace and thought to yourself, “This really stinks!” As soon as you have that thought you’ve created an environment which breeds negative emotions. Feeling badly then creates actions (or inaction) that are usually not very productive.

We get lazy. We speak badly. We complain, gossip or vent. We act out. We procrastinate.

Each time we have a negative thought it creates a negative feeling which usually leads to negative action or non-action.

Can you shift in the exact moment you have a negative thought?

Of course you can! Look how easy it was for me to go from “Shoveling sucks” to “I’m feeling really good about myself and my work.”

Each time you notice yourself feeling badly take that emotion as a gift.  A clue. A reminder. A reason to pause and witness, “What kinds of thoughts am I have right here and now?”

How can you shift from “This sucks” to “This rocks”?

I’d love to hear from you. Feel free to share a comment, question, reflection or reaction below. If you enjoyed this post, by all means, please share it using the social media buttons below. Thank you for reading. Have a healthy day!