Why Being Surrounded By Negative People Is A Winning Lottery Ticket

April has a confession to make. A confession that will shock you! She LOVES negative people. She really enjoys being around them. That’s surprising, right? I mean, think about it. A lot of us, when we’re trying to build a winning mindset, run away from negative people. We avoid them like the plague. April was no different. She felt a strong sense that negative people were bringing her down. But then she discovered something unusual: you can actually benefit from being around negative people. How can this be? She tells you four different ways in today’s episode of the Winning Mindset Mastery Podcast.

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Why Being Surrounded By Negative People Is A Winning Lottery Ticket

I have a confession. I love some negative people. You probably don’t believe me because I always talk about mindset and mindset is usually associated with positive people. Case in point, my favorite Sesame Street character is Oscar the Grouch. I love that guy. I do love negative people. They can benefit you by developing a winning mindset. I will tell you, when I first started working on my mindset, I ran away from negative people. I hermit it a little bit. I didn’t want to be around folks who challenged my mindset because, in the beginning, I was trying to stay in a good place.

I was trying to control my thoughts. I was working on the techniques and it wasn’t coming to me naturally yet. I didn’t want to be in the presence of negative people because I could feel how they brought me down. You get over that after a little bit. I will tell you that the moment that you do, it can be so beneficial to be around negative people. Why?

 

First of all, you get to practice reframing all the time. If you don’t remember, reframing is when we start looking at a situation through a different lens or from a different angle so that we start to feel better about it. I’m not suggesting that you reframe everything that they say but you can reframe some things in the form of your opinion and that will show them a different way of looking at it. It may help them but it’s great practice for you.

If you’re around someone who’s extremely negative and hearing something positioned in a better way is very annoying to them, you can reframe it in your mind but it gives you great practice because they usually bring up things that don’t necessarily happen to you but you still get to practice the skill. When you practice reframing someone else’s situation, it’s way easier because you don’t have that emotion that you’re going to feel when you do yours. See? They’re much more beneficial than you might’ve thought.

 

The second one is being around and interacting with negative people is the best advertisement for the mindset of everyone else I have ever seen. I say advertisement for a mindset because I want everyone to benefit from this. It is the most amazing best-kept secret. If you’re around someone who’s negative and let’s say you’re in a group and you’ve got that negative Nelly person, or if you’re lucky, Oscar the Grouch, they are talking and sharing what their life experience is like, what they’re going through, and what’s happening but you’re also sharing yours.

If you’re someone who works on your mindset and who cares about having one that works for you, people know, even if you don’t talk about it a lot. When they see the contrast between your lives or you’re both in the same situation, the way that you react to it is different. Maybe they get mad or upset and you’re calm, pretty cool. You’re still having a good experience regardless of what’s happening on the outside. That is the best way to show other people the power of their mindset.

If you’re like me and you like to help people and you like them to benefit from being around you, you let a couple of negative people in there and they’re going to get even more benefits, which is counterintuitive but it does work. It’s great. Remember how I told you in the beginning when I was working on my mindset, I never wanted to be around negative people? I didn’t want them to knock me off track or influence the way that I felt. Being around negative people can show you how far you’ve come with your mindset.

The whole point of working on it and having a winning mindset is outside factors cannot change the way that you feel as you’re interacting through life. If it does, it’s brief and you get back to your normal set point and the normal way that you feel. Being around folks who would normally bring you down or make you angry or bother you is the best way to see, “I have this force field. I have this bubble that I go around in. Regardless of what’s going on in the world, for the most part, I am in this same great place all the time.” By being around those folks, you can see that, which is fantastic.

When you have a winning mindset, outside factors cannot change the way you feel as you interact with life. Share on X

Sometimes when you’re working on something, you get better but you don’t necessarily know you’re getting better because you’re with you every day. That gives you that contrast and comparison that lets you know how far you’ve come. I usually like to do things in threes but there’s a fourth reason that I like hanging around negative people and it’s this. You can help them.

Just by example, some of those folks will want to know what is so different. Why do you feel differently in the situation that you are both in? What’s amazing is when folks who have normally looked at things in a way that did not work for them get committed to viewing life as happening for them instead of to them. They become converts. They are the best ones to explain it to folks and champion it. They help so many others. When someone was a skeptic and now they’re a believer and something helped them, that can be incredibly impactful to lots of people.

 

I know you’re probably surprised that April does love negative people. I like a curmudgeon too. They are a lot of fun. I want you to also know that just because you are so committed to having a winning mindset doesn’t mean that you can’t be around all the people you always spend time around before. It might be super beneficial to you and them. This may sound crazy to you. You may not believe it. You may have a different opinion. Share it with me.

Go to my website www.WinningMindsetMasteryPodcast.com. Down at the bottom, there’s Ask April. You and I can have a private two-way conversation. Share your opinion on this. I want to know what you think. I also want to know if you start interacting with people this way and find that this was such a benefit because that’s super fun to hear too. Here’s to your success.