It is proven that we as human beings have a predilection for the negative. When I ask my audiences to share something good that has happened to them in the last week, there is almost always dead silence. However, when I ask for something bad, they can respond right away. Look at our media. How often is the focus on the awful things that have happened instead of the good things people have done?
I have been reading Chip and Dan Heath’s new book, “Switch – How to Change Things When Change Is Hard”, and they share the following research:
Here are the first 24 alphabetically listed most common emotion words from “Learn English at Home”:
ANGRY
ANNOYED
APPALLED
APPREHENSIVE
ASHAMED
BEWILDERED
BETRAYED
CONFUSED
CONFIDENT
CHEATED
CROSS
DEPRESSED
DELIGHTED
DISAPPOINTED
ECSTATIC
EXCITED
EMOTIONAL
ENVIOUS
EMBARRASSED
FURIOUS
FRIGHTENED
GREAT
HAPPY
HORRIFIED
These are 24 of the most common “emotion” words in English and yet only 6 of them are positive! In a more exhaustive study, a psychologist anaylzed 558 emotion words found that 62% of them were negative and only 38% positive.
A group of psychologists reviewed over 200 articles and concluded that, for a wide range of human behavior and perception, a general principle holds true: “Bad is stronger than good!”
Exhibit A: People who were shown photos of bad and good events spent longer viewing the bad ones.
Exhibit B: When people learn bad stuff about someone else, it’s stickier than good stuff.
Exhibit C: In situations when people interpret and explain events in their lives, they were more likely to spontaneously bring up (and attempt to explain) negative events than positive ones.
The study’s authors said, “We were unable to locate any significant spheres in which good was consistently stronger than bad.”
Now, think about you and your life and work. What do you focus most on–what is going RIGHT or what is going WRONG? If your child comes home with a report card with all A’s and B’s and one D, what do you focus on?
I challenge you to CHANGE YOUR FOCUS and make GOOD STRONGER THAN BAD in your life. One of the ways I do this is to keep a blessings journal. It is just a simple spiral notebook, but every night before I go to bed, I write down one or two blessings that occurred that day. I find that even on the worst of days, I can always find a blessing or two. I also love a quotation by William Winter, “As much of Heaven is visible as we have eyes to see.” Try to always look with your “heavenly” eyes, and you will see goodness all around you.
One of the handmade motivational cards we sell on our website
I wish for you a new year in which you live your life to prove that Good really is stronger than Bad!
Blessings,
Barbara
To learn more about Barbara’s work in helping organizations better serve their customers and one another and create workplaces of passion, purpose, and productivity, visit her website at www.barbaraglanz.com.
