Here are some tips to help you steer clear from ‘attack of the zombies’
Have you ever had a conversation with someone and then as soon as they left you feel completely drained? You give them some good news and they ALWAYS manage to find something negative about it; “It’s starting to get nice and hot…” – “Yeah, here comes my bloody hay fever!” It’s almost as if they are an emotional and mental vampire; instead of sucking out your blood they are draining your life force and energy. I call these people zombies, almost like the living dead. Although they may not be intentionally negative the results are all the same.
You see when we interact with people there is a transfer of energy. We could have the best intentions in trying to support these people with advice, tips and logical methods to help them out of the perceived ‘rut’, but the simple truth is some of these people DO NOT sWANT TO CHANGE, they just want someone to listen to their misery and some company for their negativity. Is this person you? Errr nope, I hope not. Time is the most important currency that we have; if we lose money, we can make it back, but if we lose time, we can NEVER get this back. We have no control when we are born, and no control over when we die, but we DO have control of what we do whilst we are here.
1 Stay busy. Stay focused on your own objectives. When you are completely engaged in your own project it’s easier to deflect any other influence which is not helpful or progressive.
2 Break the cycle. If someone contacts you at a particular time every day to moan or to ‘offload’ their drama onto you, start to be strategic about when you speak with them. Simply do not answer the phone or respond to social media. Be disciplined enough to ensure that you have ticked off all items on your to-do-list before indulging in any conversations.
3 Get selfish with your time. Who says that ‘selfish’ is a bad word? Sometimes you have to be selfish in order to get anything done. Otherwise you spend time supporting a bunch of other people within their lives whilst sacrificing the ability to move forward with your own.
4 Be honest. Let the person know that you will no longer tolerate conversations which are dreary, lifeless or negative. Let’s start fresh and talk about ideas, solutions and actions we can take to bring our dreams into fruition.
5 Do not submit to emotional blackmail. You need to grow some thick skin! Just because someone is upset and on the verge of tears doesn’t mean that you should suddenly drop everything you do to go and ‘rescue’ them. This applies even to family members (the worst kind of zombie because of their connection with you).
“It’s a full time job trying to keep yourself positive, let alone anyone else…” Les Brown.
