Are you ready for this ??   It's time to turn the tide.

Today I want to challenge you - really challenge you. I want to challenge people up and down this country in libraries, information centres, service centres, resource centres ~ indeed wherever you work if you read this article. I think it is time for an overhaul of the hugely negative culture I see in many workplaces, because it is draining and stressing people big time. And what's more it is contagious and seems to be spreading. I am mounting a personal campaign to stamp it out !! Crazy? Maybe. Committed ? YES. I know the bold among you will read on !!

Can I tell you about the law of attraction. The law of attraction says that, as in the physical universe where like attracts like, so it is here with we humans. 

You know the mornings when you wake up feeling a bit grumpy and nothing seems to go right from the minute your feet hit the floor ~ you burn the toast, miss your turn in the bathroom, have to go back for papers you left behind, forget to leave instructions for the kids after school ~ everything you touch turns to custard and by 2pm you think it would have been better to stay in bed .

AND, remember the mornings when you wake up with a smile on your face and sail through the morning routines and the bus is waiting for you and you get a seat, or you see a friend on the way to work, find a park right where you want it, and you get good news the minute you arrive at work, and you think, Boy am I on a roll !!

On both of these occasions you are experiencing the Law of Attraction.  The negative feelings and positive feelings both attract more of the same.  The negative feelings on the so-called grumpy mornings set us up to notice and attract more of the same, and amazingly, the energetic mornings when we are full of the joy of life attract more of that as well.

What I have noticed in my work is our human preponderance to focus on what is not going well. Now that is not so stupid, given that people I work with want to change something, improve something, develop something, enhance something ~ but in doing that they focus almost totally on what is going wrong, to the point of major stress and energy drain. This in turn is likely to drop the job satisfaction and job motivation levels and lead to even more stress and ultimately burn-out and health impacts. And they wonder why things are not working out for them?

Does this sound just a tad familiar in your workplace?

Or are you one of the lucky ones who work in an environment where you do want to change and develop and enhance lots of things and there is masses of positive energy each and every day to support that change. In these workplaces people love coming to work, love what they do, and then go out and have a great time in the evening, be it at home or out with mates, not even thinking about work until they arrive back the next day. The people who work in this sort of environment do change and develop things and it seems effortless. They know that looking for the positive and focusing on it, always, allows for change to be tackled easily and quickly. They have got this law of attraction thing sussed !! They KNOW and believe that things will work out very well, and that they have exactly the tools and the personnel to deal with anything that comes up. They do have the crises as well ~ don't we all ~ but they know how to deal with them in their infancy, and save themselves all the angst and stress along the way.

Now I also know that many of you reading this will think I have now completely lost the plot here ~ that I am not aware of what it is like working in your environment today ~ and you have that right of course. But just take a moment to think about how come people like me are extraordinarily busy working to help people reduce their stress. One of the key reasons I believe, is that I do unflinchingly challenge people to look away from the negative stuff. They can do the negative stuff well - they do not need anyone's help - in fact they are experts at it, so I leave them to it, until they are ready to do things differently. Looking for, creating, and focusing on positive stuff is extraordinarily hard for many of us. And how do I know that? Because if it was easy we'd all be doing it. Wouldn't we? Would we choose to be stressed and angst-ridden and tired by 2pm each day, and dread Sunday nights? What I notice in libraries up and down this country is that looking for the positive is not common, not even considered "normal" by many, but it needs to be the new way of doing stuff !

So this month, here's the challenge. Notice all the negative stuff that is taking up your time and energy, notice how much of your day is spent discussing what NOT to do, notice the time you put into complaining about the things not going well, add to it the time taken up in your personal life worrying about the next day, next week, next month. You get the picture? How many hours are we up to ? How is your stress level? How are you feeling ?

Regard this as where you start from ~ and come back and read next month's column about some of the ways you can break out of what can become a well-worn and well-known and strangely comfortable rut. If you can't wait that long then feel free to get in touch with me.