Staying Motivated, Staying Positive

Sometimes, people will get you down. I like to think the best of people so most the time, when people get you down, I don't believe it is intentional. Case in point, I recently had a conversation with someone I respect very much. They have "made it" in life and are now comfortably enjoying their retirement. It took long hard work to get where they are today and is well deserved, but this is a very different perspective from the one I currently have. I am half their age so I have 35 years to get where they are. They did not say anything directly negative about my ideas or results to date, but they questioned what it was I was doing and indicated I needed to focus on paying off debts.

Ok, all sounds good and clearly not intended to be negative, but in the moment it crushed my spirit. I have been working very hard to turn around my financial situation and focus on moving in the right direction and this one conversation made me feel like all of those efforts were for nothing and that I was not doing the right things. However, when I stepped back and took a harder look at it, they were not saying anything that I had not already said to myself. I of course do need to focus on paying off debts and creating more positive cash flow. The difference is that they did not know any of the efforts I had recently made in this regard. They are only looking at the results of what I have done in the past. So, I should have just responded with a simple yes, you are right, thanks for the advice. Hopefully, I will have much better results from my recent efforts and I will be able to go back to this same person let them know how it is going; they meant well by the comments and truly want me to succeed.

So, when you find yourself in a situation where something someone has said or done is getting you down, take a step back and think about it from their perspective. People usually mean well and even if they don't, they don't know what you know about what it is you are going. They don't know all the struggles you may have had or the efforts you have made in the positive direction. Just take their advice at face value and see if it works into or improves upon your current goals and use it as positive motivation. As long as you know you are moving in the right direction and staying positive it is going to get better; some things just take time.