A successful long-term relationship is a matter of perspective. This is true whether in business or personal life.
So often, many of us get fixated on what is “wrong” with another person or what that person has done that we think is inappropriate. We get myopic on another person’s weaknesses and forget the positives.
While self-reflection for improvements and/or helping others become a better person are essential to individual growth, we need to make sure we don’t lose an important perspective — that most people around us in our lives are there because we at one time found them to be capable, attractive, sincere, interesting, among many other such very positive traits. A deceptive element of negative thinking is that it tends to block out all the positives of the past. A negative thought sometimes screams so loud in our head that nothing else can be heard. However, we have the control to not let that happen, to keep things in the proper perspective. It’s really up to you.
People can’t really “fix” another person. We can influence with our support, honesty, and even sternness. In business we learn that it is much more effective to empower people’s strengths than to try to fix their weaknesses. In our personal lives, it is important to remember at least five positives for every negative thought about a friend, brother, wife or co-worker. Whenever I do that, I don’t lose perspective on how lucky of a person I am for those who I have around me.
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