I am currently training for a half marathon. The other day, I was about half mile into an eight mile run. As I was crossing the street, a guy starts yelling at me “Hey jogger, your shirt is ugly. Lift those feet. Those shoes hurt my eyes. Hey jogger, you’re slow. Speed it up. Hey jogger, you listening…” He was the epitome of a naysayer. He had nothing good to say, and only added negativity to what, just five minutes earlier, had started out as a nice training run.
I tried to put the naysayer’s comments out of my head, but they kept working their way from the back of my mind to the front and center. I would then have an internal dialogue about how “crazy” the person was. Even with this obvious truth, I found his words bringing me down.
A few miles later, I was approaching a pedestrian headed in my direction. He yells out “How many miles today?” I hesitate to respond and as I pass him, I reply “eight.” He then yells “That’s great, man! Good for you!” I had just run by a non-naysayer. A person that brings encouragement and joy to any situation.
Almost at the end of my run, I saw a friend walking to her bookstore. I stopped to say “Hi.” She asked how the training was going and also gave me strong encouragement on achieving my goals. Despite the two positive experiences, the naysayer still lurked in my mind.
It is easy to let the naysayers bring you down. They constantly see the negatives in life, and go out of their way to remind everyone about those negatives. How can you combat them?
First, train yourself to see them for what they are. There are people that offer constructive advice. Naysayers try to appear like that, but in reality, they just like pointing out everything that is wrong, and offer nothing constructive.
Once you are able to identify naysayers, you can attempt to steer the conversation away from anything substantial. Better yet, you can have prepared excuses for getting out of the conversation whenever they began to offer their “advice.” Do not try and fool yourself, though, because they will attempt to offer advice. It is part of the naysayer’s psychological makeup.
Second, seek out non-naysayers. People with similar interests as you that truly want to help. Positive feedback builds your self-esteem. This, in turn, helps to thwart the naysayer’s negativity.
Naysayers are bent on taking all the fun and positivity out of the world. As much as you try, you cannot avoid them. Because naysayers will just randomly blurt out their vile views. Even if it takes yelling them at someone they’ve never met.
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