485: Sabbatical Episode: Finding Community (Part 2 of 5): Surround Yourself With Positivity

On Monday we posted Part 1 of a 5-part podcast miniseries called Finding Community. Part 2 is available today! You can’t just cut out the negative. In Part 1, Sean talked about the necessity of cutting out the negative inputs in your life, whether that’s social media accounts or the people sitting next to you. But you can’t just cut out negativity, that leaves a void. You have to surround yourself with positivity. We all know the expression “24/7”—it means “all the time”. Sean wants you to remember a new expression: 14/7. Why 14/7? - You should be spending 8 hours sleeping. - That leaves 16… - But let’s say you have some negative people you just can’t get away from. So you get 2 hours with which to be flexible. But the rest of the time, those 14 hours a day… you’ve got to pipe positive inputs into your ears. You need to offset negativity with 5x as much positivity. As much as we try to cut out negative inputs, there’s always some that will still get through. Any negativity that you can’t cut out, you need to offset with positive inputs. Your mindset is shaped by your inputs. In Part 1, Sean talked about the dangers of scarcity mindset, and the need to cultivate a mindset of abundance instead—even if you’re in circumstances of real scarcity. You can’t cultivate an abundance mindset when you’re got negativity coming in. If you’re around negative people more than 2 hours a day… you need to change your environment. You can’t accept an environment of negativity. Even if it’s your job. Even if they’re your friends. You become like the people you spend time around. And negativity has gravity on its side. It’s not always easy (or possible) to control your physical environment… but you can control your digital environment. Create a positive digital environment. For 14 hours of the day, focus your digital environment on postive inputs. Yes, of course you have a job and need to get your work done. But all that other time—when you’re on the train or the bus, in your car, walking around, working out at the gym, washing dishes… pipe positive content into your ears. Immerse yourself in the positive. - Listen to the seanwes podcast—it’s all about improving yourself, self-development, positivity, and motivation. - Listen to other podcasts with positive values. - Seek more-positive sources of news and information—they’re out there. - Find better YouTube and Instagram accounts to follow. Here’s a secret: you don’t have to follow your friends on social media just because you know them. It’s true. Now that you know, try this: unfollow everyone. Every single person—all the way down to zero. If you’re worried someone you unfollow will get mad, or unfollow you in return… that's an indication your relationship with them is that shallow. You won't miss it. Now you can start building up from zero. Imagine opening an app and there’s NO content. How do you feel? Is your life better or worse? Start following accounts on social only if they add positive messages to your life. Remember: you are not obligated to follow anyone. This is you and your mindset at stake… take it seriously. Renew your physical environment with positivity. Okay, you’ve overhauled your digital environment… but what about the physical? What if you have friends and family dragging you down? Seriously consider cutting off those relationships. But if you can’t, you can still: - Limit your exposure to negative people as much as you can. - Offset negativity by immersing yourself in 5x the amount of positivity. What does offsetting negativity look like? Let’s say you have to spend 2 hours with a negative family member. Can you work that down to just 1 hour? Now you’re still experiencing an hour of negativity. So you need to pipe in 5 hours of positive input from other sources: - Talk to positive people in your life. - Listen to positive audiobooks, videos,

2356 232

Suggested Podcasts

WFYI/Side Effects Public Media

Our Daily Bread Ministries

Helen Zaltzman

Conspiracy Theorist

Hubhopper

blue moon angels

Shreya Gandhi