How to keep a positive attitude at work
Let’s face it, being an Assistant can be pretty challenging and not every day are you going to be walking around your office with your glass half full beaming from ear to ear.
Nope!
Some days you will be massively annoyed and want to hide under your desk until you can leave at 5 pm! Hopefully, those days are few and far between, but whatever your outlook on life it can be hard to always keep a positive attitude at work.
But, we all know what it is like being around someone who has a negative outlook on life. It can be soul-destroying! Working with someone who on the whole has a positive outlook on life (even when things are going badly) has got to be better.
If you can keep a positive attitude at work, this really could be the key to your success and here is why. When you are positive, you are open to new possibilities, you are more likely to say yes to new ways of working, and you tend to be more creative and come up with solutions to problems (rather than complain about them).
So how do you keep a positive attitude at work? Here are my 10 top tips on how to keep a positive attitude at work
Don’t criticise others unless it is constructive
Do you need to pass on how you feel about someone? Do they need to know? Do other people need to know? Probably not! If someone rubs you up the wrong way, it is generally much better to ignore them and let it go than criticise or moan about them to others. Trust me the sooner you brush it off, the better for you. Other people’s bad behaviour and outlook on life is their problem, not yours!
Always come with a potential solution when discussing a problem.
There will always be issues and problems that crop up at work, yes they are annoying and yes you could complain about them but wouldn’t it be better if you fixed them? Positive people find solutions to problems, and this is an excellent trait for an Assistant to have.
Surround yourself with other positive people.
Find other people in the office that have a great outlook on life. These are your tribe!
Don’t gossip… ever.
Gossip is the worst and benefits no one, particularly in the office. Try not to get involved as hard as it might seem.
Remember your sense of humour.
This will see you through the worst of times.
Take a break when you are having an awful day.
Go for a walk, read a book in your local cafe. Getting out of the office for an hour will give you some perspective on what is happening and a break to refocus on what you need to do to sort all that stuff out!
Set some goals and strategies for your career.
Working towards something bigger than the day to day grind will give you something to focus on. Seeing something through and working towards something challenging is exciting, and when you complete it will give you a real boost. So, goals help when the day to day tasks are getting you down.
Reward yourself for your positive outlook.
Particularly when you’ve had a horrible day, open that bottle of wine, buy that nice bag, watch that Netflix series, spend time with the people that make you feel good.
There will always be things, situations or people that upset you.
Life would be great if everyone were kind to each other, but that’s just not going to happen. So, instead, decide how you want to deal with these people so that they don’t upset you. Nobody at work should have that much power over you until they upset you every time you interact. So instead of dreading to see them, except that they will be horrible or cause you problems and know that you can deal with them. It is amazing how your attitude changes towards someone when you expect them to be terrible. You might even end up laughing about it.
Be kind to people.
It can be hard when you are busy, or your colleagues ask you neverending questions that have nothing to do with your work and eat into your time. I get it! But being kind to people, showing empathy and understanding (while sticking to your boundaries) makes you feel better.
Having a positive attitude at work really can be the key to your success. People want to be around positive people with a can-do attitude. Be one of those people.
