Being positive in your work is an important part of being good at what you do. It is difficult to find someone who is great at what they do, unless they love what they do or at one point loved what they do. Being positive about your job, can help motivate you to do an excellent job even when it is difficult. If you have negative thoughts about what you do and the value of what you do. Being positive in what you do is key to being a good salesperson and being good at what you do. But on the other hand this “does not mean that you should be positive in a delusional or naive way, but confident and forward-looking.” According to Dr. Fredrickson’s Golden ratio of Postivity if you have a ratio of 1:1 or 2:1 you will most likely languish and not be as effective at work.
On the other hand if you have a ratio of 11:1 you will be pushing delusional and be the person who is too confident in what their job and what there product is. Because of this overly confident point of view any complaints or understanding the needs of the customer becomes much more difficult and close to impossible.
The ideal ratio to be at according to Fredrickson is 3:1 and at this ratio people flourish. If you find yourself as a more negative person Dr. Fredrickson says to focus on the positive emotions and events in your life. According to Fredrickson there are 10 positive emotions. Joy, gratitude, serenity, interest, hope, pride, amusement, inspiration, awe, love.
So would you say, to be able to be positive in your job, and therefore do good work, you must love your job? Do you really think that is 100% necessary? I’m not passing judgement, I just was wondering because I’m sure a lot of people who do good work don’t like their jobs. Sure people who love their jobs will naturally do better, but is there an element of “fake it till you make it”?
I think that consistency is key. I feel that you need to be consistent in how positive you are. Whether you are 9:1 or 1:1, I think if you are consistent and not always changing moods it will help you out a lot. Obviously you cant go way high or low.