They say that even a stopped watch is right twice a day. I think the same is true of naysayers. Persistent naysayers, given enough time, are probably proven right that something will happen at some point to issue you a setback. That’s life on this earth.
Were they really prophetic, though, or more like the stopped watch? If you’d taken their advice when they started telling you the sky was falling, which for many is all the time, would you have spent a month, a year, a decade, much of your life living under their cloud of pending doom?
Would you have given away years of your life that could have been spent growing, thriving, and prospering waiting for the hammer to drop?
Sometimes this naysaying is well-intentioned. People who care about you and either lost out on a dream or gave up or never went for their dreams want to prevent you from feeling the same hurt and disappointment they feel.
The saddest part of all is this naysaying can come from people you trust, respect, even love. Family, friends, spiritual leaders, political leaders, the media can put the unwitting on constant, red-alert status. Disaster, they say, is right around the corner. Your world is coming apart. They’ll take everything you have if you’re not careful.
This mindset, driven to extreme, takes one beyond despair and into desperation. People turn into animals, join angry tribes, and do things they’d never consider if they weren’t scared out of their minds by fear merchants and naysayers. Sound like a popular culture you’ve been living in for a while?
Ok, you say, I get, but are some ways to counter it?
- Believe that something good happening is just as likely, even more so, at any given moment.
- Prepare yourself for life’s raining days economically, mentally, and spiritually as much as possible. If you’re ready for the occasional stopped watch, you’re less likely to fall for negativity and fear-mongering.
- Turn off the fear merchants and find sources of information that are more nourishing or at least balanced. The sky is ALWAYS falling. THEY are ALWAYS wrong. Any source of information that preaches “us” versus “them” is very likely a source hyping your fear and negativity.
- Look at their fruits. Before you believe people that your dream or a better world isn’t possible, look at what they have produced in their life. Are they always on team “that will never work” or tram “they’re out to get us?”
- Understand that growing seasons are long and rainstorms are short. Spend most of your life benefiting from the positive momentum and prepare for the upsets, not the other way around.
- Have discernment. I’m not suggesting you walk blissfully into life’s right hooks. I am suggesting that 95 plus percent of the time, there’s no right hook to walk into. The key to this balance is to live your life for the positive, but remain as aware of your environment as possible so you can see the legitimate right hooks coming.
Life as a human being is bumpy, no argument. It can be long stretches of happiness with occasional difficulty, if you own your mindset and refuse to let the naysayers and the fear merchants force you to live in their persistent Chicken Little world.
Wherever you are on your journey today, you are awesome!
Ray
Thank You for sharing this with a friend!
The Affirmation Spot Blog 
You must be logged in to post a comment.