It’s easy to say something negative, without thinking about the effect it might have on someone else.
We leave a throwaway comment on a blog post or on Twitter and move on, forgetting that another person might read it and be upset, or spend the rest of the day feeling bad because of it.
We belittle or devalue someone else’s achievement, because it isn’t meaningful to us or we don’t recognise the work that went into it.
We choose to be negative, when we could be positive. We bring a friend down with our moaning, or we make that person’s job harder by complaining about the trivial.
We use up so much energy with annoyance and anger, when we it would be better spent on joy.
The negative is a habit that is easy to slip into. We all do it.
But next time you’re about to say something downbeat or disapproving: don’t. Take a minute to think of something positive instead.
You might just make someone’s day.