Are you affecting or INFECTING others
Hello friends! Thanks for dropping in to see what we will be talking about today. I am glad you did! I have something really, really, really important to share with you. This will help you become successful and help you get through this time that your man is in prison.
Have you ever had a “friend” that always complained? I am talking about someone who ALWAYS has something bad to say about someone. They can find the smallest things and turn them into a huge ordeal. And spending time with them can be exhausting.
You walk away feeling unsettled, frustrated, and irritable.
Every time you spend time with him/her, you feel like all the energy has been sucked out of you. It is because their poisonous attitudes are infecting you. The ugliness of their own perceptions starts to cloud your experience. Before you know it, you are taking on their offense. You are caught up in their drama – as if you didn’t have enough drama to deal with in your own life!
The more time you spend with them, the more bitter and cynical you will become. The crazy way they see the world, will slowly taint your view. You will find yourself talking like they talk, and complaining like they complain. You have been infected by the negative attitude of the people you are spending time with.
Do you have a sense of entitlement?
So, you start to carry this warped sense of entitlement (the world owes me!) and begin to take everything personally. You see a mess at home and you instantly become angry. You see it as a blatant disrespect of you. Someone doesn’t look at you, and you decide that they are deliberately ignoring you. On and on it goes because you are living as a victim and allowing other people to continue to infect you with the victim mentality.
Are you living as a victim?
As long as you continue to do that, you will never be happy, successful, or grateful for anything in your life. You cannot see the opportunities in front of you. Offense has infected you and poisoned your ability to dream. Here is the worst part—you start to infect others.
Now, you have become so infected that this victim-mentality has become a lifestyle. You have so much bitterness and anger inside of you because you have been feeding brokenness. You have now become the poison in someone else’s life. Know that you are infecting others with the way you think, talk and act. I know. It is a hard thing to hear and an even harder thing to admit. But wait! There is good news.
Even though it is easy to grow bitter, that doesn’t have to be your story. You can decide to change the course of your life. You can move from infecting others to AFFECTING them. What I mean by that is inspiring them to become better. As you begin to do things differently, you will change your own life. As those changes happen, you will begin to affect people around you.
As you walk through this chapter in your family’s story, you will experience a lot of pain, and you will see so many things that will break your heart. Living though a prison experience will give you insight into brokenness, and into the power of hope and faith that few other experiences achieve.
Now is the time to change
The changes you make naturally ripple out and influence the people closest to you. First your own family, and your closest friends. The more you practice what I call “Victor living”, the stronger your influence will become—and the bigger circle of people you will affect. No longer will you be the drain in someone else’s life, you will be the facet. You will be filling others with the courage, hope, and accountability they need to succeed as well.
Just like all change, it is not easy to turn around and do something completely different. But it is oh, so worth the effort. Infecting others comes out of a life filled with bitterness, anger, and grief. On the flip side, affecting others comes from overcomers whose lives are filled with purpose, strength, and peace. You have an incredible opportunity to invest in your family – or to destroy your family. If you realize that you have been Infecting others, now is the time to change.
Make the change
There are a few things you must be willing to do to make the change to affecting instead of infecting. First, you must stop spending time with others who are infecting you. You are taking their poison and spreading it. You can let them know you have things you need to work on in your life so you need to take a break. Later, you can spend LIMITED time with them.
Next, you will need to find someone who can encourage you on this journey. Block time to spend with people who help you become better. In addition to spending time with people, you can also find books, articles and blogs that inspire you to live up to your highest potential.
Be positive
Also, keep track of your journey. When you feel like complaining, pray for that person instead and then say 10 positive things or 10 things you are grateful for in your life. This will help you think differently and then act differently.
You are building a legacy no one can take away from you. One built on character—the kind that lasts for generations. Don’t let anyone keep you from your destiny.
I am rooting for you!
Cathy