{"id":661,"date":"2010-03-19T12:37:40","date_gmt":"2010-03-19T19:37:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dierschow.com\/wordpress\/?p=661"},"modified":"2010-03-19T12:37:59","modified_gmt":"2010-03-19T19:37:59","slug":"lighten-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/dierschow.com\/wordpress\/career\/lighten-up","title":{"rendered":"Lighten up!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Life’s stressful.\u00a0 So much work to do, so much to worry about.\u00a0 If you have a job, you’re stressed about losing it.\u00a0 If you don’t have a job, things seem so hopeless.<\/p>\n

The fabric of society is falling apart.\u00a0 Politics bring important decisions to a standstill.\u00a0 Global climate change.\u00a0 Terrorism.<\/p>\n

OK, folks, enough.\u00a0 Cut yourself some slack.<\/p>\n

First, try to make a key distinction:\u00a0 Of everything that’s broken in the world, it’s important that somebody<\/em> worries about it.\u00a0 That somebody<\/em> doesn’t have to be you.\u00a0 That doesn’t mean you’re unaware of the need, but if you don’t have the means to do something useful, why is it you that needs to be the worrier?<\/p>\n

Worry about the things where you can be a help, where you’ll actually do something.<\/p>\n

Be aware of what’s going on in the world, and let other people take on the emotional burden.<\/p>\n

Second, realize that negative energy shrinks you<\/em>, and positive energy grows you<\/em>.\u00a0 When I use positive energy – encouragement, lightness, humor, passion – I attract others who want to help.\u00a0 I increase the scope of my impact, and have more energy doing it.<\/p>\n

When I use my negative energy – complaining, debating, accusing, berating – I drive away people who might be able to help.\u00a0 Those who remain are the type of people who are combative and self-serving, which reduces my impact.\u00a0 Energy is wasted internally, not getting useful things done.<\/p>\n

Third, concentration and focus gives you a greater depth of impact.\u00a0 If I worry about the shortage of clean water in the world, it’s incredibly difficult for me to make a difference.\u00a0 If I focus on water in my community, I can now work with a few people who can influence important decisions.<\/p>\n

Let me leave you with a thought to ponder:\u00a0 Giving positive energy to others is one of the greatest free gifts you have to offer.\u00a0 And when you do that, they will give positive energy back to you in abundance.<\/p>\n

Kind of like sharing your love, really.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Life’s stressful.\u00a0 So much work to do, so much to worry about.\u00a0 If you have a job, you’re stressed about losing it.\u00a0 If you don’t have a job, things seem […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[25,76,32,13],"class_list":{"0":"entry","1":"post","2":"publish","3":"author-carl","4":"has-more-link","5":"post-661","7":"format-standard","8":"category-career","9":"post_tag-attraction","10":"post_tag-career","11":"post_tag-coaching-principles","12":"post_tag-stress"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/dierschow.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/dierschow.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/dierschow.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dierschow.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dierschow.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=661"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/dierschow.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":665,"href":"http:\/\/dierschow.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661\/revisions\/665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/dierschow.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dierschow.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dierschow.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}