How Pivoting Away from Drama Will Make You Less Stressed
Every holiday season, there is so much drama. Some of it is positive, and some of it is decidedly negative. On social media, people tend to hide behind their screens and say things they’d never say to someone’s face. Lately, I’ve heard people hide behind the phrase “constructive criticism” to level very hurtful messages. What if every time there was a choice, we simply chose to move away from the drama?
Excitement Makes the Day Go By Faster
Now I’ll admit this isn’t easy. There’s no boredom when there’s drama, and we all seem to want a certain amount of excitement in our lives. It’s almost like we’re addicted to that non-stop drama (and I count myself among the addicts, by the way). We’re just so used to it, even if we do end up with stomachaches and headaches, it’s what we’re familiar with, so we tend to put up with it. Here’s an article from the archives: Four Ways to Identify Spammers on Twitter that will help you avoid some of that drama.
How Can We Be Productive with So Much Drama?
Drama takes us away from the important work we need to do. For instance, writing, strategizing and coming up with processes. Or planning next year’s social media blog posts. Whatever we need to be doing, instead we’re sucked in by drama. By the way, if you need a refresher on time management, you might like to read about Valuable Time-Saving Tools for Your Social Media.
Why Give Negative People All the Power?
As Amy Morin says in 5 Ways to Stop Giving Negative People Too Much Power in Your Life, “Don’t allow negative people to steal your time and energy. Rather than complain about people you don’t enjoy, choose to strike up conversations about pleasurable topics.” This may seem like turning your back on negativity because that’s exactly what it is! The trick may be to tiptoe away before that Negative Nancy even realizes you’re gone. This can most certainly happen at home, but sometimes at work it’s even more difficult to escape. After all, that negative person may be your boss!
Pivoting Away from the Drama
Energy vampires will be around no matter what, and especially during the holidays. It’s a cliche, but we really can control how we react to them. Back away and do something else. Don’t give them any more of your time than they’ve already stolen. As Sophie Henshaw explains in her article How to Avoid Being Drained by Energy Vampires, “Energy vampires are emotionally immature individuals who have the sense that the whole world revolves around them.” So if there’s someone who makes you feel bad, and you can’t exactly pinpoint why chances are you’ve got an energy vampire in your midst.
Do You Have a Danny Downer in Your Life?
If you have a “Danny Downer” in your life, what have you done to get away from all the negativity? Or maybe you haven’t made your escape yet. What are you planning to do? Leave me a comment. And thank you!
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