A couple of weeks ago we had lovely weather. If like me, you tend to be a bit solar powered, you’ll have loved it too. I focused on being outside as much as possible, enjoyed walking the dog, seeing the first blue bells coming out and watching the squirrels jump from tree to tree.
If you’ve ever had a dog, you’ll know that dog walking can be one of the most sociable past times – and if you do the same route often enough you’ll bump into familiar faces (dogs and owners) and often stop for a brief chat.
It was during this unseasonably good weather that I found myself in my local woods doing my very familiar dog walk, and it was on this dog walk that I found myself getting quite miserable, even though I was in the middle of a beautiful wood on a gloriously sunny day… and this was the reason why.
Every time I bumped into someone I’d say “morning…beautiful day isn’t it?” The other party would nod and say something like…”gorgeous…it won’t last you know!” or “yes lovely….snows coming tomorrow” or “Yes….pity it’s going to get cold tomorrow” and every single time I heard one of these remarks it chipped away at my good mood. You see, I try and enjoy things whilst they last. Yes, it may get cold. Yes, snow will eventually come, but did we really need to focus on the potential negatives rather than just enjoy the positives whilst they were here?
It reminded me of something I heard on the radio recently, which put it into perspective for me.
It said…in this world there are two different types of people – adders and subtractors.
Adders are the people that always make you feel good and positive. They encourage, motivate and spur you on. They help you navigate around the challenges and help you to focus on the things you can achieve well. These people are a joy to be around. They will support your goals and dreams and everything is possible and achievable.
Then there are the subtractors. These people suck out your positivity. They always remind you of the things that could go wrong, and why you shouldn’t do something. They put you off achieving your goals and worse still they seem to have a knack of making you believe they’re right.
Everyone has adders and subtractors in their life. You’ll know exactly who they are.
I choose to surround myself with more adders than subtractors. But, I also know the responsibility lies very much with me. Not only, to differentiate one from the other…but also to make sure that I am the adder in their lives.
