’Negative-less’

When I started training I tried to remain as focused as possible.  One of the things I had to do was remove negative energy.  In order to do that, I had to separate myself from people that weren’t doing anything but offering trouble.

Some of these people were just acquaintances.  These were the type of people that although not around a lot, when he/she is, there’s always some type of drama.  For some reason, when you walk away from these people, you feel more frustrated than anything else.  They want to gossip about you and everyone else.  They’ll smile in your face and stab you in the back within minutes.  With these people, I just completely cut them out of my life.  Instead of seeing them out in public and acting as if we were cool and carrying on conversation, I now just keep on walking.  ‘Fake friends’ are not a requirement for happiness.

Some other people were my relatives.  I couldn’t (well I guess I could) just cut them out of my life.  So instead, I watched the conversations that I had with them.  One of my aunts is constantly worried about any and everything and she was the only person that tried to discourage me from competing.  Although I love her as a person, I would intentionally not update her on my progress because I knew support would not come her way.  We would talk and I appreciated her calls, I just knew my limitations with the conversation.

I even changed around how I operate at work.  Instead of checking my work emails at home on the weekends or at night, I would wait until I got to work.  I appreciate my ‘my time’ more and didn’t let things stress me out that could wait until work hours.

Once I was able to rid myself of the negative vibes, I also surrounded myself with positive people.  I loved going to the gym and meeting other people equally into fitness.  Some of my friends were there with me every step of the way.  They became my cheerleaders and biggest fans.    On my birthday, I even started a ‘Thank You Journal’.  Each night I take the time to write down something positive that occurred that day. It can be something as simple as being thankful for having a great group of co-workers, allowing me to travel safely to Cincy or even be thankful for making a positive connection with someone new.  When I got rid of the negative and increased the positive, I found that life felt so much better.  I start to further appreciate the wonderful things in individuals which in return makes you want to give back to others.  So, if you have people or things in your life that are stressing you out or really have no positive purpose, find a way to separate yourself – you definitely will notice a difference!

M.Y.  June 2008