Positive ideas for negative times

- David Pine, NZIJ Risk Management Ltd

1. Keep a positive mental attitude as much of the time as you possibly can. There are two main ways to do this: keep right away from negative people, and consume news sparingly. Most headline news is negative. Good news is not newsworthy so doesn’t get anything like the coverage that bad news gets. This is not real life. This is a distortion of real life. Keep away from it.
2. Keep fit. Anything at all that you do in life will seem to go better if you are fit.It doesn’t really matter what you do – run, walk, swim, go to a gym, play a sport – anything. The human frame was not designed to sit around all day, and it won’t function properly without exercise.
3. Surround yourself with positive, enthusiastic people and meet with them regularly. Discuss your problems with them. A problem shared is a problem halved. Don’t bottle it up – it will eat away at you if you do.
4. Work hard on maintaining your enthusiasm and passion for everything that you do. Enthusiasm and passion are contagious. Believe it or not, if you act enthusiastic (even if you don’t particularly feel like it) you will become enthusiastic, and others will be drawn to you.
5. Smile at people, even if you don’t feel like it. Your smile may be the only one that person gets all day. And you will feel better too. It is a proven medical fact that we feel better and function better when we smile.
6. Take special care of your top customers.  Take the time to be in touch regularly and to take a genuine interest in how things are going for them without necessarily trying to sell them anything at the time. The greatest gift you can give anyone is your time. High quality relationships are at the heart of any successful business (or any successful life for that matter).
7. When you strike problems, as you inevitably will, break the situation down    into manageable chunks and address one chunk at a time rather than the whole problem at once. Look at your options and take time to decide what to  do.
8. Take regular breaks. Even a three day weekend can work wonders for your wellbeing. Get away from everyone and everything and do something that you and those closest to you enjoy doing. It doesn’t have to be an expensive exercise. With recharged batteries you will be a more effective business person, and others will feel happier being around you.

During our 35 years in business we have seen many downturns, and we will see them again. We’ve found the best thing to do, apart from the above points, is to keep our heads down and press on.