Stop Being Negative! How I had to learn this, EVEN in the most magical place on Earth…
We sometimes have to be purposeful and intentional to stop being negative. It’s so easy to get into these ruts of complaining and negativity. We tend to dig ourselves deeper the more we give in to these feelings. That’s why it’s so imperative that we are deliberate about not letting negative situations and circumstances consume us. It will take some effort to stop being negative.
Not so happy and magical
To give a personal example, I’ll share about my family’s vacation to Florida to visit Universal Studios and Walt Disney World several years ago. To be honest, at times it was very difficult for me NOT to focus on some of the treatment we received at Disney, especially with the amount of money we spent on this trip (we could have bought a small car!). I had such high expectations going into the trip because I had always heard of the wonders of Disney’s amazing customer service and how they go above and beyond to make your stay with them special and magical. Disney is supposed to be known for being the happiest and most magical place on earth. Sadly, many of our experiences there were anything but that.
We encountered rude and condescending employees at every turn, saw people who really didn’t seem to enjoy their jobs at all, received lackluster service (or no service at all) on a number of occasions, and frequently had to spend close to two hours just to get from one place to another (sometimes causing us to arrive late to reservations…thus giving an additional reason for a Cast Member to treat us rudely). Needless to say, it was hard not to be negative and to avoid complaining. To try to be positive and encourage somebody else on top of all of that seemed almost unrealistic. I’m ashamed to admit that I was not always successful in remaining positive and encouraging. I was downright frustrated.
Gratitude and seeing the good
There were times though that through frustration and all, I could see positive things if I tried and if I focused on them. However, I did have to be intentional about it in my moments of disappointment. I had to remind myself that we were very blessed to even be able to go on a trip like this because many families would never even dream of being able to do this. It was important to stop and look at my children’s smiles and see that they were making lifelong happy memories. I reminded myself that long after our trip is over we’ll probably only remember the happy times. It was also uplifting anytime I heard the Christmas music and saw Christmas decorations (FYI…Christmas is my favorite. For real.).
I could also see the exceptionally good employees and good times if I really tried to focus on them. When the lady at a resort restaurant check-in was extremely rude to us for arriving too early for our dinner reservation, we walked outside to a campfire to hang out for a while and kill some time. It was a pleasant surprise to have one of the Cast Members outside offer to let the kids use her night vision goggles to try and see some of the animals there at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. They were sooo excited! So instead of letting the rude lady ruin my night, I had to focus on the positive experience we had with the kind person who paid special attention to my kids and gave them a wonderful memory of seeing giraffes roaming around in the dark.
