Back in the 40's there was a song by Bing Crosby called 'Accentuate The Positive'.
You've got to accentuate the positive
Eliminate the negative
Latch on to the affirmative
Don't mess with Mister In-Between
There's a great lesson here. Not original though. Consider
Philippians 4:8 (NIV)
8Finally,
brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right,
whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything
is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.
In the late 90s I was on staff at a church plant in Kansas. Things were booming, doubled to 300 in one year, reaching tons of people, tons of buzz around town...it was great. But there was this one family that wasn't happy. One. Out of hundreds! And my pastor could think of nothing else. It was a huge distraction to him which ultimately made it a distraction for all of us. I remember asking him how in the midst of all of this incredible success did that one thing bother him so much? Apparently I wasn't listening to myself.
Fast forward to the last 7 days. Most of our spring clients are wrapping up and getting final products from us. The accolades have been awesome. I'm honored with an incredibly talented team who have been knocking it out of the park and the clients notice. Some recent client comments:
"Dude, VERY well done! Very well done! You guys do great work."
"That looks FANTASTIC! You guys are the bomb! Great Job."
"Take a step toward your window. Listen for the wild applause coming from me
for this work! Might be the best intro we have ever done! Perfect
for this group! Goodness, it is good! Proud to be associated with this work!"
"Just fabulous, especially for this audience! You and your team outdid
yourselves on this!"
"You were all great to work with. Maybe we will work together again and will give your name to others."
The list goes on. I was flying high. Then it happened. One small, indirect, off hand, inferred, sort of negative comment. And I was crushed. Disappointed. Disillusioned. Distracted. Defeated. Tammy let me pity-party for a while then lowered the boom. In essence she said 'Are you kidding me?' She was right.
Amazing how one small issue can overtake 100 great things. If we let it. You can walk for miles with a pebble in your shoe, or you can simply take a minute, pull it out, see it for what it really is, put it where it belongs, and get on with it. Lesson learned.